From The Seat of Air

Dream Flesh--1915

the rocky sky is pullulating around the spongy larks
the boats are rocking in their rocking chairs
the claws hold glass dumbbells
the dead awaken under their globes
from the pure wool of the lambs the round black star of death climbs
   up raising a storm of mirth
from the eaves of the stars torrents of wine come cascading

he lays his zigzag eggs in the mills of speckled mustaches
he goes mummy-fishing and whatever sails farther south sails at its
   own expense and at its own risk
if he manages to speak it will be the great multiplication table
kilometers of galley proofs hang out of his behind
blue ferris wheels are turning through his knees
his water wings are edged with bells
his gills are of diamond
his eyes are of resin
his excrements smell of concubine-milk and moon-snot
his beard trickles dragon salad
he wears a shirt front of bright jellyfish
he is named your affectionate burmese serpent

the adventurers with false beards and diamond hooves snowingly
   climbed up on the podium by means of bloated whale-skins
the rattlesnakes uncoiled from their spools
the eyes of the young stars stepped from the borders of death
after the flagellation of the flashes of sunlight the donkey danced on
   the necks of the bottles
when the waterfall had crowed three times the tapestry blanched till
   it bled and the sailor's matrix burst
the jewel cases rose from the depths and displayed their anchors
the sea finally risked the swooning of the bitter compasses

the night birds carry lighted lanterns in the framework of their eyes
they ferry delicate ghosts and drive fine-veined coaches

the black coach is harnessed to the mountain
the black bell is harnessed to the mountain
the dead drag tree trunks and saws toward the male
viscous goiters slaughter the harvest on the iron threshing floor
the angels land in baskets of air
the fish clutch their pilgrim's staffs and roll in stars toward the exit

the seraphim and the cherubim keep climbing up and down the white
   scaffold without stopping and without knowing why
the creatures of the clouds walk on cotton balls they sift embers in
   the beds, they hurl javelins at the feathered humps and pile up
   stones on the signposts of horn
the lime-soaked dead wait in armchairs of shadow clap hands and bark

the stars lose their pistils
the muscles of the stars rip in two
the stars are dying in their aviaries
the stars crack and spew out their snares

the boneless princes ooze like dough around the wheels of midnight
the giantess with the iron head and false shanks leaves her bread bin
   of diamond and puts her billboard on her head
the gates of the world slam open and shut
time changes into a wax doll
supernothing shoots nonstop at the egg of harmony

even though the moon is hung up opposite me like a mirror the angel
   in my eye hurts
on the tables the seeds open and if you strike the plants the blossoms
   bloom forth
the lions with watering cans full of diamonds in their claws succumb
   before their sentry boxes
the guides wear wooden aprons
the birds wear wooden shoes
the birds are full of echoes
eggs keep on rolling out of their little hearts
their summits support the mast of the sky
their shoe soles rest on the marching flames
if the snow-chain snaps they invoke god
if the wheel of the sky descends their hooves tread on black seeds

the kings groom their forests brandish their intoxicated birds and
   ride to the thermal baths on their iron canes
the growing beasts dance on glass buskins
the trees custom-make their own birds
the flagellated birds bleed to death in the colonnade

whips crack and the well-groomed shadows of the shepherds come
   down from the mountains
black eggs and jesters' bells drop from the trees
from the storms of the bass drums and smaller drums the donkey's
   ears come gushing forth
wings graze the flowers
wells stir in the eyes of the boars

the laughing animals foam from the iron pots
the clouds squeeze animals out of grains and stones

the naked hooves on the stones remain tranquil among the branches
   and the fishbones
the immobile clotted hooves support hot ornaments that are also clotted
   immobile
the hooves are as naked as the stones
the stones are old
the clock of the stones runs slowly

antlers pierce the globes of snow
the kings gallop to the mountains on chairs and preach the horn of winter
lower the straw bridges
forge the iron letters
turtledoves freeze in the ice-bottle

the fleece of snow covers itself with a lead mine
the bouquet of white light glistens like chalk
the foam angel coos
and the tiles and the butterflies frolic
and the stars rock in their rings
and the flowers rattle their chains
and the princesses sing in their pots
who departs on little fingers and wings in pursuit of the winds of morning

BACK TO 1946

BACK TO ARP MAIN PAGE