STILLE

Grey water on a cold day.
Frozen ground that rings
Beneath my feet. A gull
Hangs in the air, unmoving.
Unblessed hour, why
Should I remember you?

IN HELL

Hell endures but its patience
Does not. Wearied of Dante
And his poking about, some
Of the more creative devils
Ran up a good imitation
Of Purgatory for him to see
And then outdid themselves, making
A Paradise rather like the one
They remembered in the hope
That he'd be satisfied and
Go back to Florence. Alas,
The demon playing Beatrice
Fell in love with Ba'al, whose God
Won raves from all the critics
In Hell (insert here joke
Referencing number of critics
In Hell). Both of them at last
Had to be exiled to Heaven.

UNDERSTANDING

Dogs he understood, and cats would nod to him
As one well fit to give counsel in perplexity
But of the language of birds he had little
Enough to ask for directions, perhaps,
Or to know a joke was being told. Just as well,
He said, to hear birdsong as music. Winter geese,
If you let them, could break your heart.

DUEL

Years ago my morning self
Bitterly insulted my evening self
Apparently there was a duel
Of which I only heard
After my morning self
Had been gravely wounded
And carried home on a shutter.
My evening self spent some years
In Ostend, to avoid arrest.
The world spins; when now we meet
We discuss indifferent things.

ANOTHER FOR AESRED

What if the sea should fall in love
Thinking of you until it grew
Sick with longing and the kraken
Asleep in the deepmost waters
Grew uneasy because the sea
Was leaving its work undone?
What if the Moon wrote poems
Remembering that it saw you first
In some southern latitude
And its heart is troubled still?
What if the Prince of Fools
Grew wise with wanting you
And sought counsel from the Moon
And sought comfort from the sea?

JOB POSTING

Thanks to a Google misread
Of an old book, Libitina,
Formerly a corpse goddess
Is now Goddess of Corners
The saints, not to be outdone,
Are holding interviews
For a patron saint of corners.
If you think you may qualify
Please appear simultaneously
(Since saints can bilocate)
At our offices in Reykjavik
And Tierra del Fuego.
Applicants should bring
Photo i.d. or miraculous icon
And proof of access
To the illimitable power of God.
Also, if you are one of Ursula's
Eleven thousand virgins
Please remember that
We remain uncertain whether
Any of you are free-standing saints
Or just attributes who can talk.

CROC

The very first crocodile began a thought
But could not finish it because
Cold blood slows the synapses.
His sons and daughters went on
With that thought and even now
Each crocodile contributes what he can.
Some argue that the world continues
Because angels, leaning on their spears,
Are waiting to see how the thought
Looks when finally it is complete.