EVENING SKETCH: AFTER JACK GILBERT (2)
BY JAYDN DEWALD
flowers in darkness trout in sunlight the basement in
ruins blue clouds in the night inside the bedroom bright hair
in sunlight wrists in silk gloves, and dancing in lines black mirrors in
rainstorms inside the heart still leaves in the gutters in- vaded his heart
in the mind a warm breeze the lovers en- shrouded bring in the gods, and silk
gloves in tatters still leaves in rainstorms incense in lines wrists in the gutters
the music inside ruins in bedrooms trout in the night disrobing in
orchards the woman alight black mirrors invaded in storms a man
blue clouds in the dancing bright hair in his hands bring in the gods
the lovers in sunlight still leaves in black mirrors silk gloves in
the gutters the music’s in tatters it flowers inside
evening sketch: after hopkins
BY JAYDN DEWALD
I awoke to call in midwinter in the white
of the morning the moon in the white of a finger-
nail dwindled and thinned to the fringe
of your photograph the whites of your eyes
wild looking back askance held over this candle
your paradisiacal flesh waning but luster-
less under the fruit trees under dark Maenefa
the mountain I pushed your barrow your grave dirt up out of the dark
Maenefa the mountain fanged with icicles
and into a moon- stunned clearing in which lies
our one and only bed silver-sheeted
its bodies our ghost bodies dwindled and thinned
in the white of the morning in mid- copulation entangled
eyelid and eye- lid I prized open
the desirable sight unsought finally there you are
held over this candle wild looking back askance
leaf and leaf divided from the fringe
of your photo- graph a page of your flesh
divided I awoke to call in flames
