The tail drew
seven crowns
and ten horns
upon that old
serpent’s head.
“He is called
Revelation, who
cause the whole
world. Take him
as worthy
reward attired
like the Whore of Babylon
reaching the third
part of the stars.
Do not cause him to die.”
°
Clutch the garment
gladly, find it
with such
difficulty the life
persuades back
to the body
(“native prison”).
To gaze on death
(“holy beasts”),
that earthly form.
And God said
too late
“Let there be,”
and the piercing light
faltered into two shapes
of the tree: an allusion
to time (of sorrow)
and reward (of death).
°
Beaten, the top
of the helmet glitters
with anguish flashing
as the stroke
comes over
the shoulder
with power.
Splendid evening stars.
The shield made
of one solid
diamond, unflawed
except with magnificence.
In the Letter to Raleigh,
it is identified
with virtues, containing
them all: the clear moon,
the constellations, the palm.
The magicians
believed the eclipse
wanted a change:
to make the form
marvelously dim.
°
He that fails
to control
the spear
lays open
his spirit.
He that fails
to will
cannot will
power. The spirit
pours forth
the end a kind
of courtesy
never found.
Destruction ran
its course
along the garden,
the wounded
either forsaken
or plundered.
The lands—
Phison, Euphrates,
Gehon, and Tartarus
—remained
impartial.
°
Brave means
“who was not killed.”
His strong hands
guiltily stained
the object
with mortal fear.
Who prefer death
to treachery, go
unrespected.
The sad, unfortunate
dear one, misjudges
who judges rightly.
Andrew Wessels: I’m a writer, translator, editor, book designer, and teacher. My first book is A Turkish Dictionary, published by 1913 Press. Semi Circle, a chapbook of my translations of the Turkish poet Nurduran Duman, was published by Goodmorning Menagerie.