1. last world lost first
all promises promise themselves
[what nature doesn't want]
nothing lives for its own sake

 

2. war makes culture
[empire begins at defense]
your money [and] your life

 

3. heaven's curse [scorched by water on water]
steal to own [that uncompensated distance]
ashes for ashes [Prester John at the gates of Qaraqorum]

 

4. then swam into the tall grass
singing memories alone together
as if the dead would not mind
this wind of loving immolation

 

5. is to kill
[without being]
killed
[each footstep]
[breath]
mistaken for all

 

6. a bluish wolf
fell in love with
a fallow deer
[the Great Khan]
[a womb unavenged]

 

9. to be human [the lying animal]
to believe a soul [made of mud]
to whisper ["I belong to no-body"]

 

9. "You must have committed the worst of sins
for God to have sent a punishment like me"

 

9. now that we know each other
[said the joker to the thief]
let us consummate
[this marriage of convenience]
divine fiction and earthly consequence

 

Copyright © Craig Watson, 2005.

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Craig Watson lives in Rhode Island, where he co-edits Qua Press with Michael Gizzi, a publishing house devoted to fine productions of work by contemporary poets. His own collections include Free Will (Roof Books, New York, 2000) and True News (Instance Press, Santa Cruz, 2002).