Back to Issue 4

Absorption by Phillip A. Ellis

Water runnels down the windows,
the rain is late again, and stirs
the dust alone before washing away
from the hard ground.

If I had known, perhaps
some spikes driven deep,
removed, might help,
the water falling in.

I think of wooden stakes
absorbing water, swelling
and splitting the soil:
it parts

and a part of earth
detaches to float
away. Atlantis swims
to sink another day.

The dust is darker,
thinly mud,
and the rain runnels
on my window.

Such Sorcery by Phillip A. Ellis

The river runs unto the greying sea
that strikes upon the rock encumbered shore,
and I have dreamt a maiden striding lorn
within this fair and melancholic scene.

Such sorcery had torn her man to sail
upon his ship, for ventures seeking gold
and frankincense for wealth, but now the cold
of the sea breathes through bone, now fleshless, frail.

Sea-creatures dart and play between his bones,
they take the hour denied to him, to play
their hidden games within a sea untamed;
he lies unburied, lorn and left alone.

Such necromancy! Storm by spirits raised,
the ship to shore is driven, cracks the spine!
I've dreamt the maiden sorrowing in night,
the river runs unto the sea of grey.