| "Cardinal Points" litetrary journal: www.stosvet.net |
print version |
Michael Waters The World Inside This One |
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Chernobyl Necklace Among those "countries that are counterfeits of Death," Baudelaire could not count Belarus Where throats festooned with red crescent scars Grin across schoolrooms and factories. Even an aesthete like Gerard de Nerval Who leashed his lobster for a stroll to the opera Could not imagine such theatricality — The post-op smiles where butterfly-shaped Thyroids once blackened, then blossomed. The World Inside This One Spring: your mother ammonias the windows, Each chamois gesture returning to glass A certain beauty always there, but less Obvious before this moment, the light After seven days' rain casting judgment Upon all things with odd clarity: light Seducing light, your body enraptured By the hour's whispered solicitations, The glass so clean it no longer exists. |