Equueleus

Patrick Kurth

 

In hide of palm,

A need of want

Loops a pommel

 

With callous smiles,

Tugs the gut tight

With a braid ‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’

 

‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’ of doubt. Drought

Cakes hard and tenders

A feint of use.

 

I guess everything

Can be a paperweight

Or a gravemarker.

 

Day goes dim,

Paws a tuft of straw and dung,

Gnats wait in murmuration.

 

Angst champs the bit

Giddy already

On the pallet’s promises.

 

Corn in flower,

A lather of molasses,

The beetle ensemble balleting

 

To rafter clef,

Clover tenor, and

Cobweb twang.

 

But beware the semaphores of mare thieves for

 

Their pirouette may unbeknownst

Cut the tether,

Then there’s just

The endless pasture,

Another Carignano,

Monstrous plaza ,

Which gives nothing

Of direction

Or definition

But the endless drift of

Symmetry         in            symmetry

To the asymptote of sense.



***

Patrick Kurth lives in Berlin, where he helps to run ‘Bridge’, a print and performance series featuring the work of local poets. His own writing can be read in past and forthcoming issues of Third Point, Panoply, Red Flag, Soundings East, River River, and the FU Review.