Graham Joyce Requiem 11-30

innocent, irregular contact
ringed one with a pen
out of the astonishing blue
hot tarmac
girls toting Uzi
farouche
walk with stretched necks
making a tinkling of their feet.
Rock breasted blue skies
honey-colored light flaked
licked ancient brick
antique portals
on a gilt-edged stamp
comely as Jerusalem
climb across the perforated, gilded
childhood and mythology crystallized
innocent arrival
awaiting the final breath
"Gone away. Ummm."
He imagined a sleepy Israeli
squeezing the moist handle
Fresh sweat bloomed
at one moment
cavalier and daring
regretted his pale appearance.
mouthful of gold
Me'a She'arim
DRESS MODESTLY AT ALL TIMES
permanently aghast
of warm dust
mote-clouds stirred
A clump of jasmine
prayed he'd left that behind
almost erotic
rinsing cup and saucer
defiantly in a moist, pink mouth
Permit me.
But with this leg...
unveiled
pearly mist accreted
his own elation
on the battlements
a root smell
blowing wildly on a penny whistle
wraiths in black veils
antiquities accruing around
russet gloom
weeping elderly Greek women in widows' black
and the crevice was smoky
spider-priest
locked and rotting
deep, pungent spice, like balsam
hands like crumpled
an eye through the veil
To be a teacher is a state of mind.
comment held up to the light for a bout of sporting criticism.
pretending to rinse cups,
He made his living, he said,
sullied by the people.
He let a finger float
a square mile of religious labyrinth
swim in its secret pools
blood-lust since time unrecorded
Here it stook, still spinning
a vast nutcracker
Jerusalem, the bittersweet nut
down the runnels of the ancient
under your nails, ingrained your skin, young women militarized intrigued
Beautiful girls, armed,
The guns made the girls more desirable.
a new queue
stone steps and studied