A STUDY IN GREEN
Green changed to white, emerald to opal: nothing was changed.
Dowson
a century somnabulised
Empire’s after-image
splayed
like a sycamore leaf.
Ernest,
turns to drink,
diagrams an exit wound.
Absinthe
worm in the Would
clouds Lethe green the brain stem
shredding the index
flooding the circulating library.
Rotting corridors
reach discrete rooms
where time wastes.
Grief-sap
colour of bank-note skin.
Pleasure heads burn
rage
libidinal economy.
Wither tomorrow, wilt
words to bone, pause
then x-ray
spectral capital’s claws
Green changed to white, emerald to opal: nothing was changed.
Dowson
a century somnabulised
Empire’s after-image
splayed
like a sycamore leaf.
Ernest,
turns to drink,
diagrams an exit wound.
Absinthe
worm in the Would
clouds Lethe green the brain stem
shredding the index
flooding the circulating library.
Rotting corridors
reach discrete rooms
where time wastes.
Grief-sap
colour of bank-note skin.
Pleasure heads burn
rage
libidinal economy.
Wither tomorrow, wilt
words to bone, pause
then x-ray
spectral capital’s claws