Alchemisland

Tonight’s debutante, descending the stairs, gloved hand grasps a balustrade

Hair bouffant, look upon and wince, like a haunting her antique beauty 

Far from exhaustion, that vaunted visage that vaulted ceiling

That kitchen she used to sit in, unlike every other citizen

Unmoving, Zen Master, unmoved, the ornate plaster casts aping old palaces

Grail quest paintings with forbidden chalices, bust of Charaxus in alabaster

So scathed in Sappho’s rabid maxims, we glimpse well the foibles of ancient characters

Change is only a mask, a plaster covering over the long, unknown hereafter

Acting our task, axe open and the cask for, alas, this night too will pass

Glances cast like stones from the oak slings of peltasts fighting Rome, collapse

Of every empire ever, a new banner from the severed old, evil leveret abundant

At the rabbit rutting season, their runts with scuts scuttle through every rill and runnel

Rumours of tunnels from the manse to the surrounding townlands

She sees them, seizes them, a seeress steering ant destinies