Michael Palmer

Elegies for Sister Satan: Fourth Elegy

At last the perfect weather is unending
even as the ice storms prove unending
even as what was once eternal
departs like a brief smile
 
as we swing from life to life
like sad-eyed clowns
in whiteface and baggy pants
balancing on red balloons
 
between the simultaneous worlds
the parallel worlds
we have yet to name.
Sister did the Lords of War
 
once offer you a name?
Was it the same
one they offered me
at the point of a gun?
 
Did we then live on
telling unspeakable tales
over a thousand and one
unending nights?
 
Lift the ice and the sun
to your lips, Sister,
and to mine. And sing
the words between the lines.
Other works by Michael Palmer...



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