I.
Dreams of dancing police
in a game of
chance or music for
changes – what was it?
Nevermind the weather let’s
talk about the daisies
or binomial theorem if
you’re teeming with a
lot of news practice
squaring the hypotenuse General
as the sorties scour
the commissariat and the
Pirate King loots the
shore with a centre-
bit another orphan boy
empty-handed hail poetry
___
II.
Thirteen-four-thirteen
Pirates and police – oh my!
Please no more encores
Caravanserai
Disyllabification
Commissariat
Dotted with daisies
talking about the weather
matrimonified
Heliogabalus
binomial theorem
deliberateness
___
III. A portrait of Isabel’s mermaids
… a carved stone-portal entrance / to a forbidden sea-temple;
they called the creature… / …a Siren, / a maid-of-the-sea, a mermaid,
Some said, this mermaid sang / and that a Siren-song was fatal (H.D.)
Isabel, aka Tall Stanley, likes
“mermaids and eating” or so
the local newspaper reported.
She thinks of them as
fellow humans, we aver
from her dialogue with
Kate and Edith (Spunky
and Short Stanley, respectfully).
“It’s the very place for mermaids!”
she gleefully exclaims
through a mouth full of cake.
What does Isabel – o la
belle! Mademoiselle! Veuve
la belle – La Belle Dame…
What do you dream
you’ll find five fathoms deep?
Do you fancy some
Pre-Raphaelite vision
like Cowper’s portrait
of Keats’ La Belle
Dame Sans Merci ?
The dangerous nymph,
the “lady in the meads,
full beautiful – a faery’s child
Her hair was long, her foot was light
And her eyes were wild.”
Oh! What a lady
she must have been,
right, Isabel? What
mermaids wait at
the bottom of your dark
wishing-well? You’re
as mysterious as they are.
Dare I write another
___
[Here the poem breaks off]
Cowper: La Belle Dame Sans Merci (The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy)
