they drink in time to drums ,
pretending not to hear.
Outside the ring a woman
sways in golden loops ;
her arms are singing vines
waiting to be touched .
It is the only dance she knows .
They do not give her fire.
Ricardo Pau·Llosa
ST. GEORGE AND THE NOTARY
after the painting
by
David Manz ur
The dreamer holds all the cards ,
but he plays on, feels the striped
lance near the nape that opens
on hinges, the inside of the skull
dark as a robbed crypt .
Already he is the dragon
depite his seals, his sure
accounts , his name
in high relief. The charger
comes
all
the same ,
the steed rearing into a pose
for an absent tourist
to snap an absent photograph.
Only the notary slain
by the knight is a witness
to his undoing, his arms
