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In ‘The Very Image’ Of David Gascoyne

 

 

An image of a priest

With sandals of trembling seaweed

Punctual robes of honeysuckle

An incense burner of deceit

And in his hand a blazing star

 

An image of a train

With outrageous smoke of filtered sandalwood

The monotonous rhythm of a silent hurdy-gurdy

The outsized bill of a pelican

And the incessant noise of a wasp reciting the catechism

 

The image of a fireguard

With the opaque tears of an adolescent

The scent of jasmine at 4.00 in the morning

Rubbing itself provocatively against a white rose

And covered in the fragile dust of a dozen crystals

 

An image of the Mona Lisa

With her opalescent eyes of seashells

In her left hand (of course) she holds a wilted flower

Whilst grasping a glass phial of pure emptiness in her right

And balancing a 2’ wide green apple on her head

 

 

24 October 2004

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