Carol Dorf

AIR
(AN UNNATURAL MARRIAGE BETWEEN NATALIE BARNEY AND GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS)

When the king taught her to waltz
he kept concluding on a bleak
low bend referencing
the blue shine of light on wood
Assume a lamb cooks in the embers
and someone stands by with a flute
to transform air into clouds.

Did the stars predict the king’s death
minions caught grabbing their share
as they ran through the drawn dawn
every falcon a daylight enemy
presenting a flask then gliding
into the forbidden sky dome
rung upon rung the air the ladder
tuned to sound, sense liquid
a wing of scarce swinging ecstasy
to float with night and sweep
away the heel of rebuffed day?

ONE NEST TOGETHER
(THE UNNATURAL MARRIAGE OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI AND OSCAR WILDE)

An arrow wounds the air
Last summer green things were greener
Birds sin for joy
Rose bud on the climbing briar
Whose mate will follow?
The king fisher flies
Almost a year
I haven’t seen her