Ratcliffe Orchard

Introduction Maps Cabinet


i.

Devilish seeds
hid rich under crimson disguise
will grip a man, lead him heavenward,
senseless, vice-like,
laugh as he scales a spire
and howl when he falls, cavernous,
among briar and bramble
and sleeps, hollow and echoing.

A garden of riches;
a cup proffered, easily drained and
replenished. Dependence
grown from a sapling
to blossom ensnared.


ii.

An apple falls, and vapours
low inside the walls
hang colourless; such gas and dew
describe a rising, heady rush.

Visions flicker in the branches,
sharded, lensed and prismed,
all kaleidoscope,
all memories, desires and fears.

Quell and quench your murmurs here!


iii.

Bars of silver,
hearts and cherries
spin joyfully,
rank on wheels arrayed
by fingered machines;
a dance conceived
of rumour and rumour,
forbidden desire
for romance and ding ding ding
cascading cash! cash! cash!


iv.

Peep, love, love, peep.
Clink of flap or grain of screen
serve window-like for spies unseen:
for worship, or (for harder-core)
to peep on paying peepers.


v.

Vigil held, the cold voyeur-cum-record-keeper
so observed all circles spun and dances played
(by dazzled and by dispossessed)
to recommend a maze;
complex, empirically-defined,
of elegance and mirrored sides.
Economy in missing signs.




© No Spinoza
2008