Somber Recital Notes

a huge yellow egg shell
has been cut and carved
into continents (all connected)
the oceans all a breathless
hollow
where the absent foetus
of the bird
had never resided

carlo gesualdo
somehow
has been resurrected
as a buxom
nude and red-haired woman
riding a shaggy
black furred griffon
which rears up on its hind legs
though it is floating
at the center of the egg world
and very tiny
a tincture in fact

but his face
all around where
the beak was inserted
is scorched
the woman's face is scorched
because carlo gesualdo is inside
and he is a beak
a sharp and crooked beak
which sticks out of her face
like a nose

now when i remove carlo
the beak remains
in babylonia's face
and its deep oak roots
grow out the back of her head
the longer he is gone
the longer they become
until they touch the inner surface
of the yellow
egg shell world

as if you took a root ball
and made it into an inkbrush
and stood in the center of a giant egg
the harsh light of the sun
penetrating the egg

and babylonia
plunging its brush into ink
and painting the surface

and on the outside
snails
with mouths like sewing machines
outlining the continents
up and down with the banderoles

inside and outside they go
interior and exterior
extimacy
a tincture in fact
the media that they all abhor
and become
inside our children
when i remove its shell

the hunchback has a shell
and the phoenix rises

crippled