Author: [[Nick Roberts]]
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Wm. Blaxton with the apple seeds in his pocket
lookout over swart N. Atlantic
he sees the dawn and dawnspring rise—
hand of Persephone turning the wheel
the dreadful white
pomegranateblood hand of Persephone
turning the wheel
turning the rudder turning the capstan.
We’re headed to the underworld with
daughter of Oceanus
wrapping around us
Preswa, deer, Despoina
the study of seeds and soils they take root in.
Praxidike, Hagne, Aristi cthonia.
He fiddles the seeds in his pocket.
They are smooth and waxy to the touch.
Here I can fetch you the apple,
William Blaxton, reverend heart of landscape
of intimacy, o scape
of doxy and ortho bless farms
and the dux of the orchard across.
William Blaxton fondles the seeds
in his pocket, on the packet
from Weymouth to Charlestown.
He plants one
beneath the sign of The Three Cranes,
under her heart. Way through
the drawbridge on North Street,
butchers beasts entralls and garbidg
flowing through with singularity.
Charity dies as he swims.
Deep glacial tides, anonymous in strata,
whole in going.
I dip my glass in the glacial spring
and drink.
I drink to the time of the fires
across the bay, winking the water
and freezing my heart
where it is cold and my seeds.
Where are you going, William Blaxton,
as we build paradise on the hump?
To Lotan, your serpent
guardian-arch of the well.