M a t t h e w M o o r e —
PORCELAIN 120
i.m. Paul Celan
Porcelain rainbow. Porcelain speech.
Porcelain stammer.
Porcelain street. Porcelain bed.
Porcelain smithereens.
Porcelain cloudscape. Porcelain cream.
Porcelain Viennese.
Porcelain warmth. Porcelain irises.
Porcelain repetition.
Porcelain Gorgon. Porcelain corpses.
Porcelain mountain.
Porcelain ash. Porcelain moss.
Porcelain ambience.
Porcelain silence. Porcelain horizon.
Porcelain delight.
Porcelain fowers. Porcelain river.
Porcelain granite.
Porcelain secret. Porcelain heart.
Porcelain guest-book.
Porcelain walks. Porcelain rages.
Porcelain anchor.
Porcelain shower. Porcelain rest.
Porcelain chthonics.
Porcelain torrents. Porcelain sheets.
Porcelain dungeons.
Porcelain blazon. Porcelain orgasm.
Porcelain fatefulness.
Porcelain trysts. Porcelain histories.
Porcelain darkedness.
Porcelain doubt. Porcelain breezes.
Porcelain autumn.
Porcelain axe-faces. Porcelain roars.
Porcelain furnaces.
Porcelain moon. Porcelain screams.
Porcelain leaves.
Porcelain time. Porcelain words.
Porcelain pasts.
Porcelain fshes. Porcelain alleys.
Porcelain calendar.
Porcelain hunger. Porcelain food.
Porcelain nests.
Porcelain sweat. Porcelain winter.
Porcelain values.
Porcelain cold. Porcelain salvage.
Porcelain death wall.
Porcelain furies. Porcelain earth.
Porcelain voices.
Porcelain harvest. Porcelain order.
Porcelain testament.
Porcelain tracks. Porcelain game.
Porcelain beasts.
Porcelain weather. Porcelain sand.
Porcelain tradition.
Porcelain cloth. Porcelain dahlias.
Porcelain passion.
Porcelain Sabbath. Porcelain song.
Porcelain culture.
Porcelain papers. Porcelain spirit.
Porcelain parable.
Porcelain letters. Porcelain news.
Porcelain message.
Porcelain crisis. Porcelain Jehovah.
Porcelain torment.
Porcelain soil. Porcelain Yeshua.
Porcelain huts.
Porcelain judges. Porcelain host.
Porcelain tabernacle.
Porcelain fames. Porcelain laws.
Porcelain tarrying.
Porcelain revolt. Porcelain future.
Porcelain gathers.
Porcelain camps. Porcelain plain.
Porcelain heavens.
Porcelain feasts. Porcelain death.
Porcelain testimonies.
Porcelain port. Porcelain claims.
Porcelain ecologies.
Porcelain hair. Porcelain fames.
Porcelain populations.
Porcelain dead. Porcelain names.
Porcelain counting.
GRAFFITO
Written over, “What is just?” above:
Justice the beauty beauty’s will dew.
FALL OBSERVATION
The heart is holy, washed in its fate;
The crowds like bloodshed in the market-place;
The landgrave blesses his profigate;
The communion of the damned graces his face.
GOOD-BYE, WORDS
i.m. Michael Hamburger
Weary heart! No longer blush, for what
You have given me: innocence and guilt.
[THE CROWD]
The crowd stood, on the ramp, ethic’s hard breath
Like silence, and faced all directions, for no breeze,
Rank from salt after being passed over, line to line.
Life had just fgure-painted to surface, until, in the
Not unsoundable heart, the screams began to beat.
ACHERON
The atrocity masque earned
Enough coin to hire
The ffth painter to re-paint
The scenery boards
With livid detail. He tasked,
To mural a human
Pit, so human and so pitted,
To cross Terminus.
When he fnished he saw he
Had left the banks
Of Acheron coated in gesso.