Notes Towards a Libretto
(fig.1)
And then the last breath, and the next crescendo.
One can barely discern the rebellion.
Clocks overhear, the lilies begin.
Rhetoric calligraphy commences, the arousal and the crows.
Now, the celebrity of weapons opens the overture of tanks.
The faint trees migrate. Stage left, though an opera
the noise overshadows slim rents in our hearts,
the dirges oversee dowagers, children of dust. Stones hum.
The vesper of whispers in meadows retaliate begin
to leave and take widows, walls and the dead.
Constellations of the next rigor mortis launch
while outside a body count of hands parades.
(fig.2)
Commence the weapons and the stones hum left.
The dust begins rebellions.
The faint opera of calligraphy and crows leave
the dead overshadowing
slim rents in arousal and rhetoric.
Breath, and the next noise is our hearts.
One barely discerns dirges from the overture of rigor mortis
and outside the next tank parade.
And then, the crescendo and the last trees migrate.
Stage and launch the dowager’s children and roll
the body count, the constellations of clocks,
the whisper in meadows.
Now, the celebrity of widows, the walls and lilies overhear.
(fig.3)
A parade of hands rolls through an opera of tanks;
noise overshadows children, slim walls and the dead commences.
Widows, dowagers of dust, hum uprising the stones.
Stage left, now the celebrity of noise opens
rents in our hearts. Breath, and the next weapons migrate,
the next rigor mortis.
Clocks overhear dirges from faint trees.
The leave-taking and meadows of organs
retaliate their declarations. A letter posted home. A launch.
One can barely discern the rebellion of the skies,
the overture of lilies begins outside constellations
of rhetoric, the body count calligraphy.
Crescendo and a vesper of whispers,
arousal and the crows oversee.
(Published in Against Agamemnon: War Poetry 2009)
