DAWN WAND after Rilke; Quotation Marks of an Astrophysicist

DAWN WAND
derived from Rilke's CAROUSEL


o sugar fin
dad gun
my elephant

mist is the enemy of ditches
and semen
shatters in the drift

deer wail in the haunted alleyways
and lungs, covered wagons
paint the unguarded pants
with their collared swords

I hire the harem
in the midst of ditches
hawks in the dim land
and in the end the boxer hires me

vein rider
rioter
gentleman of inane ligaments

eon weaver
dawn wand
in the dim wine of the world
the ear-eaten satchel
the gnarled day

hope is the dour mite
which halts heaven’s lenient hand

I deny recitation in the jungle
the blazing forest flickering
beneath the gun


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thanks to Hugh Thomas for feedback

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"I would have been happy if the publisher had distributed, along with each book, a bag of quotation marks." - astrophysicist Hubert Reeves in his marvelous Malicorne