Four Poems by Mark Young

 

The evolution of light

1.
all around it is
smell of winter
tides silent on the tongue
interpreting the moon's serrations
wherever light
whatever the
interstices

2.

Simple solid things
though subject
to the
season. Meso-
lithic. Accidental fire.

3.
The sea
rises up &
leaves
the sea.

4.
eventime's lions
lope black
up on the veldt

*
even linear time
loops back
upon itself

5.
Light sits silent
in the darkness

waiting for
an owl to come

& show it
the way out.

6.
What do we
take out
of it? Some
compromised
memories; &
these small poems
in lieu of
severance pay.

7.
Sometimes
the intervals
contain the music.

 

---

Loreto

& she may be like
me & think of
Leonard Cohen as
she strolls by the
local home of the
Sisters of Mercy
where a cross in

the chapel stays
lit all night. An aged
nun with a walking
frame struggles
across the back yard;
there are pastel
colored cars parked

out front; & poised
on the roof is a satellite
dish, ready to receive any
message beamed from on
high or, if none come,
the latest episode of
Orange is the New Black.

 

---

A Tract

                                     Other-
                         wise there
               is a point
                                   at which the
                        rope breaks.
                             A small
                                           tear. A
                           fray. Ten-
                 sile strength.
                                              Not dimin-
                             ished but
                                   destroyed.

 

---

A line from Jean Genet

Feudalism was the first of
the mathematical sciences
to be developed as a quest
reward from The Ancient

Brazier. A kitchen sink,
some dirty dishwater—the
world's contempt is a theme
common to the intellectual

life of both Classical Anti-
quity & Christianity, much
like the image of a puffing
Marlboro Man or that man

on a pedestal labeled Russia.
There's so much talent out
there. This gloomy statistic pre-
sents a depressing picture for

today's teenagers. Why do re-
cruiters seek passive candidates?
I was in Bulgaria last year.
Machu Picchu was amazing.