Leonine Viewing: For Yona
Tracie Morris
1.
NYPL’s stone
lions, kirin watch.
God-rocks, firmament
guard stalwarts
Man-crafts, chimera’s
( ) splay hindlegs.
Felidae frozen,
mid-mane sway.
Gorgon Ithiopes’
Sentinel swarths --
Latinate next of kin, kiln.
Eastern side of the West’s tendril
Land heavy under
gold-weights. A clench-fist
outline, forearm. A paved way,
slink purring kings
Rumble ribcage,
Hot homed, cool here.
From hounding
fox lands, Richard’s
cardiac-tressed crest.
Absorbed sable strength,
shifted forte betwixt
tectonic plates
Abyss’ reconstructed
Albion man’s palpitate,
Gainsaying breast.
Hot pelt shines, conquest.
His kept realms, blessed.
Those Moorish charms reset.
2.
Early epoch
dust-blurred,
in scroll
archivic-archeol.
Scorched Alexandrine
Truth. Globe
Axle remade, consecrate
Jewel-blocks
erased through flame.
Rulers inherent sport
Determinate. To hold two
thoughts: Fortitude, Patience.
Their faunae:
Delving in hunt
Sprung in foreign soil verse:
“this is me.” This means me.
I mean to mean it. Cartesianly.
Level, stately, nomenclate.
A bind woman’s equanimity.
Free of care of how she’s seen.
A burden-relieved,
holds Castor Pollux scales
reptilian wriggling in each.
Veins vacillate weatherly
3.
Gauging climate
in her frame. Good evil.
Détente made mean
-ingful. Tuning
A440 center.
Ephemera axes make
Her orb stigmata life-worth,
giving. No up or down, long
paths, scenic stacks
twirled view. We are leaning
sphere side, flares like their
Medusan manes.
This sopping stone
iron fired center.
Under-roar of constant
tearing cooling. Here
the fist first
opened close.
4.
Where we began
humankind, started to
trek, treading water settling
into grow things, rescinding.
“For I perceived God’s light
about [them] both wax and fire.”
Our children, corpuscular in these kings.
Black cubs se/ar fervent tomes
Babes born since stores of stories.
Line of ancients, ubiquitous coil
Strand their names-in-wait, emblazoned
in gold, burned brass, vellum covers.
~~~~~
Tracie Morris is a poet, performer and scholar from Brooklyn NY. and Professor of Performance + Performance Studies at Pratt Institute. Her most recent book, Rhyme Scheme (2012) is from Zasterle Press. Her upcoming book, handholding: 5 kinds, will be published by Kore Press in 2015.