John McCullough
Hyacinths
Don’t flatter yourself you came
by your own design.
This floral horde has opened
for the courting season
and its pagan sorcery
ensures you lift each bell,
forces you to skim a finger
down livid green swords
and remember not Tiepolo’s wounded boy
but Hyacinth the hunter:
the leopard prince who clutched
his discus with resolve
as well as grace, forever battling
to match a god whose casts
full-rhymed with comets.
These descendents on love’s front line
retain his guts, scorn every lesson:
incurable challengers whose shaken blades
would make the sky capsize
just to bring the sun closer.
by your own design.
This floral horde has opened
for the courting season
and its pagan sorcery
ensures you lift each bell,
forces you to skim a finger
down livid green swords
and remember not Tiepolo’s wounded boy
but Hyacinth the hunter:
the leopard prince who clutched
his discus with resolve
as well as grace, forever battling
to match a god whose casts
full-rhymed with comets.
These descendents on love’s front line
retain his guts, scorn every lesson:
incurable challengers whose shaken blades
would make the sky capsize
just to bring the sun closer.
Apollo transformed blood from his dead lover Hyacinth into the flower that keeps his name.
Page(s) 20
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- 10th Muse
- 14
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- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
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- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
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- Interpreter's House, The
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- Lamport Court
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- Magma
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- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
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- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
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- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
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- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The