Historic Fiction
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your birth began eight hundred years ago
your birth began eight hundred years agoyour life at the dawn of an age of summera rooster crowedand the sound of a church bell five times tolledhad the first light of an empire not crackeda black horizonand had the golden age not risenand become full like the sunyou’d have remained the eternal tribesman Continue reading
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tell me again how nora loves you
tell me again how nora loves youthen become marcellus cometo me from the towercome from the cock crowed dawnyour fingers are so slenderand the old women in your knuckles arefrail and brittle use the pommelof your rapier to knock at elsinore at the guestroom door comeafter morning prayers are saidafter the roasted pigeon and the Continue reading
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i’d walk over the waves like galilee was a sodded plain
i’d walk over the waves like galilee was a sodded plainthe sun- risen morning of the last day i’d open like shutters and stride through the division in judgement robesafter the last day i’d raise my hand and blessthe wafer i’d raise my hand and bless the wineand by the holes rusted into the palms Continue reading
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before you fold
before you foldthat parchment into a padlockslit a keyhole into the end that’sunfolded with a pen knife or a scissor cutfrom the bottom of the letter a parchment keyshort in height and wide in width a triangle Continue reading
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i wish he’d taken that to hamlet
i wish he’d taken that to hamlet or to claudiushe’d brought them his dreams that woke him from his drowse nodded watchthere was something of young hamlet’s father marcellus dreamt the king from an afterlife claimedorestes had come to denmark he declared an apparition wandered the house of his sleepthrough the hallways of imaginationan apparition Continue reading
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no an old man’s cold love
no an old man’s cold lovewritten to warm the furrow of a fertile maidit always failsit’s undesiredinstead let me writewhat ophelia read from hamlet’s letter write doubt that the stars are fires doubt that the sun moves doubt the truth claiming liars but never doubt that i love young hamlet had a talent to speak Continue reading
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a prince and the son of a nobleman
a prince and the son of a noblemanone for six french swordsand one for six barbary horseswielded foils in their gauntletsfor the copper blondedaughter of the house of fugger wielda goose feathernightly dip the quill in the inkwellbetween the folds in the parchment writethe east shinesand radiant are theseas and the continents thatso briefly face Continue reading
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fold three folds in a sheet of
fold three folds in a sheet ofparchment on the table in your chamberlike a chambermaid folds a bedsheetlengthwise in the middleand in both middles between the middleand the edges to the left and to the rightin the eveningbefore your day’s last thought comes and goes to sleep with you foldthe page like a servant girl Continue reading
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ask nora if you can watch
ask nora if you can watchher unbind the ribbons unwindif you can watch her unbraidask if you can describeher hair as gilded silvertell her the sky’smade of filaments of spun goldthat it’s rooted in her headthat out of her head growsgilded heaven askif you can watch her hair fallcascade down the length of herlike a Continue reading
About Me
I have a day.
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