The Poetry Corner

Warhorse

By Paul Cameron Brown

Taken as metaphor ... Ophelia's funeral oration, derogatory snout of the Morning Glory breathing pollened fire overladen steps of the church. II Limestone rock caulking in grey limpid cracks ... doublet and hose then gold doubloons down sunlit honey where a smear of red lichen onto brown-yellow moss colonizes rock. III Poor Ophelia, dicing for a sedentary-free Hamlet, duty-free of fissures + frost. IV Elusiveness, water rushing over stone torrent of words (Ophelia receiving these), red hand of the berry swollen shut, prisoner in the dock bird of quarry, pit & gunny sack. V Night plummets to quarry, sky to earth in brazen glory. Magic of the palm spans an upturned hand ... "To each his own nothing's known."