Wendy Mulford
NO MORE PARADES
As if mattering as if mattered matted
cat on its back shiny pills wink
little hammer strokes lightly
if you return
faithless & gay
if you return
as if mattering
I can of say it again calling I can
truth-telling call as if where in dark
lakes high peaks
(name-loss) in
great need
little hammers swiftly struck
faithfully votive
running the sky-light in clarity
under a small country range
all
hopping creeping life
darting to the unhooded eye
where
folded flowers call down
a leaf water glint
an atavistic bid summoning
to a ruthless line
equals no power
learning.
then ask
supplicate their presence
only no ritual only no no
matter as if the
strip/of metal foil
as if the/wheel-bound breaking
or
if I trowel
watch build sweep
cthonic powers I
give up this I
as if not mattering not
carelessly travel
a refrain of alterity
she
dispersed
to a new dwelling
-tunnel such darkness
lodge of desperation
As buds fall
light moves north-west
earth turns
pondering
tides slip back
as if caring
as if so
mattering
before we burn
in this wetness & this light
before it is late
help us our histories
unmaking
don't imagine (ever) an ending
where I will go today
neither tell tomorrow
nor the tracks defeat me
leaving
Copyright Wendy Mulford 1980
