Michael Palmer

Elegies for Sister Satan: Ninth Elegy

All elegy is fragment
sings the crazed sister
as she hurls
wine glasses and dinner plates
from her apartment window,
the remains of a meal
still upon them.
 
Her clothes follow.
Every figment is real
sings the naked sister,
the now naked sister,
contemplating the body that was,
the one that is
and the one it will become.
 
Afloat in the air the clothes,
and the hours soon follow,
both first and final,
until none remain,
neither minutes nor seconds
to count out loud.
And always in the air the horses,
 
circling, prisoners of air,
their songs heavy as air,
light as a stone of bright quartz.
They too are ensorcelled, these horses,
and she watches them slowly falling.
Falling, she watches them.
Who hears her calling?
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