I understand that it has been a long time. Truth be told, I have not written much lately. But here it is: raw and unedited (yet). Gerlews refers to a knight from "Le Morte D'Artur" who was slain by an invisible knight. Balin, a knight of the Round Table, swore to avenge the death, and guarded Gerlews' damosel until this was achieved.



GRANDPA GERLEWS

you know I smell the barbaric clay
and flay the soil but
when I rub my eyes the dirt
makes me cry—goddammit
when I till your hoary garden (once-mannered, once-young (goddammit))
I churn up the rusty taste
of your cuirass; of
the sweet scarf you kept folded
in your back pocket;

scraps of your recliner—
your throat simpers, your lungs
juggle (impaled (the spear invisible) goddammit)
and the snakeskin victrola
of your chest hisses out
rusty songs.
susannah’s a funny old man,
man,
man.

my lips and nose crush
into the gravel—I shall
eat the earth bellied over you; I shall
chew to your dark wet womb and
gnaw away the strap of decay. I shall—goddammit
lift you up slick and new-skinned.
each callus renewed.

but of these thick stone glades,
which stone is yours? in the hot mist
you are obscured, and I hear the distant
thump of hooves.
I cannot find the broken lance, nor
the one who thrust it in.
I cannot pluck it out.