Curses

1

The old ones thought they could trade
ears of corn

for long life
and happy children.

Can you believe it?

I mean,
do you think it’s true?

Can one thing replace another

the way the moon hides the sun
during an eclipse?

2

Imagine there’s a person
just like you

beside you
or besides you.

If there are two chairs,
you will want the same one.

You will always want it
more than happiness or love.

When you wake up,
you will remember nothing of this.

3

Don’t forget,

Mother’s hidden under
God whose name

must not be said.

Keep her down there.
She’ll be needy,

screeching
after so long

Familiar Ground

‘Eat, Bunny, please.
Sit up and eat.’

The child is the mother
and the bunny is the child,
but no one is the cloth rabbit

or Holy Ghost.

*

To be conscious is to go
through the motions

that have recently been made –
but which?

*

Angular motion
inscribes an ellipse,

while light runs straight
from imagined
from point to point

Lions

Lion taming
exists to make us think
that the ferocity of lions
is fake.

Or lion taming exists
to parody our sense
of human mastery
over the earth.

Of course,
any thought
is a shot in the dark.

But a poem exists
to contain it.

Now a thought
is a watched pot.

Artwork © janwillemsen