rail of moon, a stone
black sun burning down & east
her milk & blood alone
knows the egg nilotic white
like wax or beauty dies
passes soil a breath a crawl
of colour bed or moon
noise & voice & like a corpse
beloved her shaded bird
good or easy shield a heart
rubedo water cold
burning sweet by tasting life
in death by honey stone
army lovers sword the search
for mountain tones a stone
inside her vestal lily
fragments a face of day
rising in the anxious sky
a comet dies or shines
〰〰〰
comet dies or shines
passage & the pit or scorning
gifts he lived again & bound
golden cords his door of water
rain or bird vermilion dawn
death of metals fire & seas
swallow-backed he eyes
the sun his beak the crescent moon
a storm of flowers mountains
rising waxen tail of trees &
fruit to camphor child he smiles
amber gardens lights her holy
valley waters sands all milk
& gold the ashlar rivers dung
bones she widens curves on death
death her leaden dew or fleece
the steps to salt of brazen seas
〰〰〰
salt of brazen seas
murex door or idol wonders
river squared & lightened
dung & bones her horns a fire
amber cries the mountain
rose unfolds like taste of bees
she dyes as trees the ixir smiles
death a bloody rider sun
cloaked in owls all eastern
absent wax or stolen egg
becomes a bed return to ground
untied ley of rainbows
horse-like sun & iron child
kindness dead a wind undressed
fires & time she flourished musk
living rain the knot of spring
abandoned cuts of river
〰〰〰
abandoned cuts of river
bedside dead return addressed as bones of wind of girl
& darkness traced & known by men or loved with bloody eyes
incense fruits she torn apart or ended mortis fear & fire
revealed the cave the honey hills anointed spike adamic
heat of maidens mothers happy cracked & dead the ragged clay
stone from her & him or skin like august winged its diet meat
royal fire remains of sex of graves like art her little wings
& ways in all but towers coals of calfskin heart dissolves
© Paul Hardacre 2017
Paul Hardacre was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1974. His first collection of poetry, The Year Nothing, was published in 2003. His second collection of poetry, Love in the place of rats (Transit Lounge), was shortlisted for the Thomas Shapcott Award in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and was launched at the 2007 The Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Since 2004 Paul has, with his long-time partner, artist and graphic designer Marissa Newell, lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Bareknuckle Poet Journal of Letters © Bareknuckle Poet ~ Journal of Letters & Individual Authors 2017. Edited by Brentley Frazer, A. G. Pettet & Guests. All works published by Bareknuckle Poet ISSN 2204 – 0420 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Published by Bareknuckle Books ABN 23 626 812 677 PO Box 5009, West End, Brisbane, Australia 4101 FOUNDED – BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA 2014