Tuesday poem #256 : Geoffrey Nilson : this could be a sequel

June 11, 2014

what roof will cover the end when blood orange is eleven

years one month & ten days after “Mission Accomplished.”

balaclavas wrap the bulletproof Humvee in evening ink.

bone script, prisoner flood, ghosts up to the knees & the flight

of all men charged to protect the city, uniforms shed like skin.

another beginning begs long off under shingles, a light

in the upper window. blink slow cartography, clear the map:

blackened Tigris, mountain ash, neighbours

turn to the tumult of ocean. the future has been levelled—

stillness paid in boxes, oriel windows & hospital deconstruction.

what will be worth fighting over. children rebuilt then again erased.

mannequins in the alley clothed in our garments. leaning

minaret splayed before dawn after eight centuries unobstructed

views of the river. present company a collection of life

less bodies. this is a version & yet also a lattice.

Geoffrey Nilson is a writer, editor and multimedia artist living in New Westminster on the unceded territory of the Qayqayt and Musqueam First Nations. His poems and essays have appeared in Poetry is Dead, The Capilano Review, subTerrain, CV2, and other journals. He is the author of four chapbooks and the most recent, In my ear continuously like a stream, appeared recently from above/ground press. Find more on his website at www.vcovcfvca.com.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan