DEUCE for Aurelius Piper      [Stefanie Bennett]

 

When he whispers incantations

Across the ceremonial pit

In late winter

The last snow-drift

Orbits the tree tops

Like smoke

On a morning stroll

Headed towards

Infinity’s skylight.

 

Praise abounds. The sun soars.

Raven gives a jocular

Caw matched by

The smiling Elder

                            Who has

My father’s eyes

                            And more.

 

With hands wide open

We spread

The wealth.

 

 

THE PLEDGE...       [Stefanie Bennett]

 

                         (The danger of the road

                         is not in the distance)

 

                                             Meng Chiao

 

He did not like the shape of its handle, nor

Suitcases that opened unaided at night.

Favour was furlongs apart –,

Sentiment, rot-wracked clay

 

[The way of the loose wristed potter...].

 

      Error’s triad may say –, “Those

      Who’ve never belonged

      Within belonging

                                 Cannot fit

      The given whole...”

 

Perhaps that’s why the handle held fast,

And the suitcase –, knowing

Pity –, swallowed

A stranger.

 

 

LEGEND             [Stefanie Bennett]

 

At precisely five o’clock

Each afternoon

Old aerograms, like

Blue-green butterflies,

Surge round her head

 

... Decades in front of

Yesterday’s false ceilings,

And betwixt the immediate

Flood-light’s

Festival obscura:

 

Such wanton abandonment!

The collector

Carousels

And grasps

The irresolute voice-strokes,

 

Bows and vows

A bygone

               Allegiance.

Who hasn’t been there (?)

Will be there

Once again

 

... “Good-night South-East Asis,

Turkey, Berlin...”.

Actualised, she’d

‘Drop the pilot’

                        If only

She know how.

 

 

THE CLASH       [Stefanie Bennett]

 

What simplicity –,

God is.

What simplicity –,

Buddha too.

 

The equation! Both

Exist –, make

One of

The mould –:

 

Who’s there

To be fooled... ?

Who thought up

The disguise ?