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Poetry by Carl Selph

Page 2

"I sing what was lost and dread what was won,
  I walk in a battle fought over again..."
                           --  W.B.Yeats

 

 

 

Interior with Figures

 
          Unshaven, pale
in agony but adamant
     the boy confronts the man
      
 
          who needs no word:
icy electric calm confirms
     message and messenger.
      

© Carl Selph, 1999

 

The Effects of Poison

 
At my own table seated, I
Reached out and took the proffered cup,
Knowing you mixed it, where, and why,
Obeying when you said, "Drink up."
      
 
Hot venom well can inquinate:
Partakers very often die.
Cold poison, too, can desecrate
And cloud the most translucent eye.
      
 
Enfeebling first, your recipe
Then served as its own antidote--
Assisted by my chemistry.
(Read all fine print and each footnote.)
      
 
Impervious now to bhang and bane,
I live immune to blast or bloat,
On guard for bilbo and garrote.
Think twice before you try again.
      

© Carl Selph, 1999
               
                              

In the Lobby

 
Ten years have passed
and there you are
between the acts
just near the bar.
      
 
You're well though fat.
I start to say
"This is...."  You nod
and turn away.
      
 
I watch your back,
pretend to cough.
The warning rings
as you slope off.
      

© Carl Selph, 1999

 

A Partial Insight

 
Later, in a waste
of white sheets, watching
past cold glass the cold
white stars glittering
over the old house
he lay still hearing
the frozen water
jug crack limbs snap
in the acacia
the swarming stars sing
to the setting moon
their thin unchanging
lunar elegies.
      

© Carl Selph, 1992
    First published in Descant

Dream

 
Some summer day
when the rosy promise in apple trees
makes the heart turn with hunger
and the mouth tingle with kisses
my sunburned love
like a ripe red apple
will drop into the grass
where I am kneeling.
      

© Carl Selph, 1999

 

 

All text on this page is copyrighted by Carl Selph and appears here by permission. All rights reserved. It may not be archived beyond one personal electronic copy for offline reading; such a copy must include the entire text of the present notice and the author's name. It may not be printed, posted on a web-site, distributed publicly or privately, used or quoted in whole or in part, or published in any manner or form whatsoever without the author's explicit permission. E-mail Wordreign to contact Carl Selph and your request will be promptly forwarded.

 

 

 

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