Jal Nicholl – However

Jal Nicholl

However

Stack however many stones none will get oedema, regardless of fifty coats they’ll still be cold A black bunting of ivy decorates them, awaiting a pageant it rises and falls like a snail While the well sealed urn takes the weight of a cloud the way the acute end of an eggshell takes a bible A seed loses its tail, puts down legs full of oedipal rage, kicks a hole in the wall, cries god and bites into a lemon And in the botanic gardens an oak blooms forever whispering as it reads in latin naturally As a homeless man draws isometric houses— porticoes, turrets, spires, moats in the pavement’s matrix

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