Before His Death in Battle, Apollinaire Ruminates On His Short Life

by

Peter Magliocco

 

I translate the color of your skin
onto the common testament of canvas--
the epidermal texture of yourself?

A poet in uniform
seeing the dangerous shape of war overtake him--
just when life was a Picasso etching
burned into the grip of love's hand
around your throat
& its vellum feel?

Now words fail before cascading bullets
circus adepts might catch between teeth
in a carnival outside Paris, where children cavort
waiting for little miracles to occur

in the sun-shadows playing across water depths
we scourge for the last fisher king.

 

Peter Magliocco has edited the lit-zine Art:Mag for twenty years out of Las Vegas, Nevada, and has poetry online at Thunder Sandwich, The Oracular Tree,Unlikely Stories and elsewhere. His latest chapbook of poetry, fiction and art is Iced Amaranth from Vergin Press

 

 

 

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