Spare Me

the vanity of those who seek to end history
by scorning the claims of the ghost story.

We who live by mystery 
have no business trespassing
on the last myths 
          of the blue universe.
 
Take the late mist of a dying princess:

the torrid blush, the fluttered lash
         the camera flash 
the visual challenge
         of the smoky glass;

the broken heart’s commodity.

The wounded driver a flame 
         in the eyes
of an astonished girl. 

(field of landmines   tiny legs   a mirage on distant sands)

We who live by mystery wait.
‘I’s cast open, eyes half closed
while the lights smoke in the tunnel
         and the car’s a wreck
the heart a brain 
                the palace shattered glass,

beauty shy of time.
                           *

Ade Jackson

"GATE"(7?.) (reiterate)

 shut in the brain and step  0   here was heaven at the first
 out,stop,down                     step - We thought about it
 it ends in rooms,I          .  and there was a car journey -
 put rooms here                    We ended that wondering is
 only running out by my         that anyway to go and thought
 own design,enclosures       .   a heaven would answer "Love"
 here,hear "bark" things        or a means, - means of "going
 hungry to clean up          .  or  any way,where         on"

"GATE"(6?.) (all at once)

away from a hallowed gate,        0              light, that
away again bigger                               funny thing?  
away from the gate or                                    fun
shocked to pieces -               3               to the end
light passes on the                             lightened up
real world                                    a mist, beauty
tulip, mildew, and                6      of a day after mist
all light passing through                         the ending

"GATE"(5?.)

lock in a system                    the bed as it
all loved things               appears in a dream
                             expansive, joined on
place the bed as it                     all sides
appears in                               by a bed
commotion under          5            impinges on
something                                   sweet
fed on loves                                   us

"GATE"(4?.)

      heaven by high                  infinite
      road                      dusty elements
      the magic                 about the head
      car                        of the driver   
      in the elements     4          
      the magic car       5            by hook
      how far ?           6       or crook the
      - the distance      7         long drive

"GATE"(3?.) (solo)

 a mass             0       a path
 of fuzzy problems          bodily
                             taken
                    3
 twin lip                      two
 tautly they
                    6
              #.(one added      on

"GATE"(2?.) (accompaniment to 1?.)

 "All the nonsense in the 0               or all
  world greater               the gummy branches
  than all the nonsense"  2        the body done
  the world                                   in
  milked                                added on
  him or his                             a thing
  bed                                   his body
  place                   7          peripheries

"GATE"(1?.)

 funny furnishings      0           exposure
 he would see           1 to all in the mind
 heaven                 2               
 as funny               3          makes way
 dreamy furniture       4             to all
 wavey lines            5
 moved it around        6            and all 
 a bit                  7                 or

a year past

(i)
This man's eye sockets protrude
their ridged roundness showing everyone the view held
by all chimpanzees
barking laughing
from high jungle branches.
He shuffles with red ribbon scarf against winter's teeth
and the hooded youths mock,
aping movements as they part on the pavement.

(ii)
This man places four clocks even 
along a shelf he made himself
from iron and wood 
salvaged from the scrapheap
where he patted a friendly dog
and spoke jovially with the owner
of simpler times.

Each clock was different,
times carefully set to mark 
those hours and minutes in the cities
where his lost loves had breathed their last.

Alexis