A Letter from the Sculptor on Schandmantel Park

at first the park is square~ then
stretched
             at two corners
                                  to make a diamond~ a
                  diamond~ a
                                    parallelogram~ a
                                                            non-parallelogram diamond
and then a pool is set in~ an
                                         almond~ a
                                                          mandorla~ and
                                                                                 scattered around
the almondorla
are six blue granite X's
                                prone
not prose,
nor poem,
but letters,
from a sculptor
                                               and these letters are the benches
strewn now with finches, larks, pigeons, and doves~ and
                                                                                  who knows specifically
why these
particular birds
have decided
to use the human furniture?

each of the six X's has six key holes which are plugged with six keys,
and they can be turned but not removed, and some wind up a mechanism,
which renders musically, a thick tolling
which rolls from a single port in one of the X's crotches
the X's are an abstract vision
of the colportage
of Johann Philipp Siebenkees
there are also fountains //

the largest of the fountains is also a grotto
an iron maiden (made of iron)
whose open doors support the head and shoulders
and form the walls of the grotto
whose spikes either spray or drip alternatively
within the cool dark naos
and in the center of that enclosure or space there is an object
which shelters the drain

a malachite choke pear
opened up
and standing like a tripod
whose oracle is a key-head
made like three heads of screaming birds
and somehow the stone is
refrigerated

the other fountains are spread around
the other fountains are an abstract vision
of the colportage
of Johann Philipp Siebenkees

there is a Spanish donkey
whose stirrups are ladles
which catch the rolling water
which falls from the peak (the spine)~ and
not like a book's, but like a roof
and they jerk periodically
splashing the water randomly
over its tiled basin

there is a Judas chair
whose pyramid has been raised up
atop an obelisk
and is a crystal~ which
lights up at night
and the water pours through hieroglyphs
which change over time
through a system of layered plates~ and
the base is a tripod, of course
like a stool, or a chair

there are twelve Scavenger's daughters
lined up like a hollow snake
and the mist which flies from the rings
makes rainbows some days
when the light hits it right
or you stand certain in the angle

and there is an enormous Knee-splitter
whose spikes pass continuous thin streams
from one downward facing spike
to a corresponding upward facing one

there is also a Head crusher
whose cap is large enough to stand under
and whose edge produces a curtain of water
which opens sometimes
so that a person can step inside
and take a shower of silence
but remaining mostly cool and dry
invisible mostly in the interior

the cap for the big~ and
nonexistent head
is a dome
surfaced with mirror

and somewhere in the park
are two plaques:

TO THE MARTYRS

~and

CITY OF GOD