I imagine him high noon
deep in the throws of undulating hipswag
sculpting his rendition of "Nothing Gold Can Stay"
fire and ice glass sky.

Though I wouldn't know him if I saw him, in the peripheral sense
pluricentrically intimate he dabs me: mojo expresso eau de vie,
the fast chick with the nerve
to blindside his cafe
open air breezeways by the sea walls thinning
"Moonlight in Lady Macbeth."

Knedla dumplings,
knedla plum,
knedla fiesta:
What the fuck!
I imagine him hungry as he's peopled
mulling o're a label
like an architect would a city in a country were he Bog -
curvy or linear?
heavenly earth?
what thickness running inland?
how many portals? - molding walls
ripe for climbing roses on the bush!

I brandy her moonshine janjetina,
"la fée verte" in a peka:
little lamb overshadowed by a ghostly x.
who longed so for his kisses
in their absinthe
her spirit turned green then blacked out!
When she awoke she had no recollection
Sambuca by any other name she'd gone postal,
would never climb the summit to his portical
with blood on her hands
as the whites of glossy postcards
roll inwards in the winter of double flowering heads
beading passageways for tomorrows
in other places walls immeasurable.

I imagine him tense,
click turn up the radio;
a zombie is not a good start to a marriage! he would shout
lean out the window
his poet in residence
dipping our bread in the sauce
like a stem in the round
would the bells of a steeple
forging a new note
a blaze of terracotta
anticipating our vows
tighten in repose
the leaf's first snow
as yet on the bud
the word the moment
"nothing".
.
.
.
October 1, 1991
a bomb exploded his kitchen
Milan Milisic
age 50
poet, playwright,
Serbo-Croatian translator of Frost, Hughes, "The Hobbit"
was one of the first casualties during the siege of Dubrovnik.



Back to youth's ink well buxom lux!,
I imagine he would say,
hold me close
sifting the sea through your hair;
it's a slow ferry, the Lagiva from Rijeka to Split -
a short jaunt to your city from here.*

01/08/2013

Author's Note: * Not sure if last verse should be moved to beginning of next poem,
titled Opus 0 in the series "From Split to Dubrovnik"
With references to:
Shakespear's famous quote "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" in Macbeth,
Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay",
Milan Milisic's play "Moonlight in Lady MacBeth"
and to my muse, my darling x.

Posted on 01/08/2013
Copyright © 2024 Elizabeth Shaw