Christopher Barnes
McMalley’s Gractengordel*
A Dorothy bag, farrago ribbed, teased
Through conveyer belt customs,
A buxom little Mary, magazine shearings
Pulped in the mizzle of Amstel docks.
She’d snuffed false dawns, dapplings
Singled out for this exile, mimosa twists,
The De Gooyer windmill’s revolution.
Sunday gloves, Oude Kerk pulpit,
Mezzotint misericords, the chorus,
Harmonious smutched-glass windows,
Camera frescos low as canals.
Two mackinaws and a bolster to let,
Boards succeeding peeling restaurants
In her debut altered-life quadrangle.
A caprid constellation enters, moments without fear,
Wailing klaxon shattering the auditory rap,
In terror she finds composure,
Indifference to bomb-check clicks.
Her assassin’s stamp is back in Shankill,
Breath-arrested silence.
If she keeps to shadows
She’ll watch the children play.
* district in Amsterdam
Page(s) 59
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