Nicholas Manning
Three Poems
ieri , adorata
walk
in streets * named after battles
within yourself *
Ulm Austerlitz Sebastopol
where the light flies
into tomorrow
effortlessly
while at the river * emerging
lights upon the bridges
blue eyebrows
churches * the only proof
that you were not there
at
Ulm Austerlitz Sebastopol
that all was
before you were
in streets * named after yourself
where the light flies
into yesterday
clock / kcolc
the clock is * infallible
golden only
ticking infallibly * into the past
ingot needle * wheat
which like your love
with the years *
grows less and less bountiful
filling whose granaries ? mine ?no wait ! I meant
more and more bountiful
honestly
why lie to you * when
you are a knot of promises
like our time in Trieste * ieri , adorata
and these hyacinths you see
which I dug up * with my nails
from the night’s clotted soil
just for you . . .
do you thank me ?
freight
or copper and lilies
hoary
the sun on the copper
squalor of the urban * beautiful
ash and train yards
and the lilies *
freight
and the lilies
everywhere and everywhere !
in ashes * recalling how
we are in the end game
protect your queen !
while along tracks * parabolic
over the forest gulf
we see the pawn * slave runaway
chasing the mountains
gathering the lilies
back into * the sun