Waltz or pass a cradling caress Frown or prance, test in tenses past Thickest orchestral glorying Ghosts of wars transmigrant memes Customs undressed, immolated, effaced Magical stitches, maddening wistful douleurs Panic pickled, swirling hemorrhaging Harmonic goose steps, stiffened spines Smiling boots glistening in Prussian violins Recidivist frivolity, for a grand dance or grosse pause Perturbed, blind soldiers hobbling past stretchers Kicking the contours, counting the dead
Mustard gains Acid gargles Yellow vomit Mass graves
Worlds of war wedded arms merchants Virgin tails plucked from the sky Moulins Rouges or pink butterfly Dreams and screams in pews and trenches Scar fountains, penny operas Empires somnambulant, plagued and black Genocidal vengeance sputtering us all In Faustian borrowed beard disguises drenched In noisy endless macabre rising madness
Bedros Afeyan Davies Symphony Hall With Ravel, 2-28-2009