Ara vus prec

Chapter 14: ODE

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About This Book

This collection gathers short poems and dramatic monologues that juxtapose urban decay with classical and religious allusions, moving between lyrical impressions, satirical sketches, and stark meditations. Voices shift from weary, reflective speakers to grotesque comic figures, presenting fragmentary images of streets, interiors, and mythic echoes. Recurring concerns include spiritual barrenness, memory and desire, failed communication, and the tension between irony and seriousness. Formally, the pieces mix free verse and measured lyric moments with abrupt tonal changes to convey dislocation and emotional opacity.

ODE

To you particularly, and to all the Volscians

Great hurt and mischief.

ired.

Subterrene laughter synchronous

With silence from the sacred wood

And bubbling of the uninspired

Mephitic river.

Misunderstood

The accents of the now retired

Profession of the calamus.

Tortured.

When the bridegroom smoothed his hair

There was blood upon the bed.

Morning was already late.

Children singing in the orchard

(Io Hymen, Hymenæe)

Succuba eviscerate.

Tortuous.

By arrangement with Perseus

The fooled resentment of the dragon

Sailing before the wind at dawn.

Golden apocalypse. Indignant

At the cheap extinction of his taking-off.

Now lies he there

Tip to tip washed beneath Charles’ Wagon.