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Thony Handy

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Winter Quarters

   - Being an arrangement
       of the articles and chattels of me, Lovernios,
          which are the icons of my sacrifice
Item,
          one charred bannock, half eaten,
          a cup of barley-beer
          blessed with sacred mistletoe
Item,
          a royal torc of Wicklow gold
          which lit my throat and
          will now drown in the Black Lake;
          and this other torc, triple-knotted,
          to choke my breath:
          a garotte of goat sinew
Item,
          my armband of fox fur:
          all that will clothe me
          at the time of quartering,
          when water is thicker than blood
Item,
          an axe to puncture my skull
          by three bolts,
          a sharp knife for the incision
          releasing the pulse’s thunder
Sum,
          I must prepare
          my winter quarters:
          these peat-rusted pools,
          wreathes of bog myrtle, a moss pillow,
          silver birches screening;
          remember me at Lughnasa
          when only pollen and tanned leather
          remain to tell your shaman
          how this scapegoat
          bore the weight of empires
          into a bog,
          to barrack legions
          and render our Magic beyond
          Caesar’s winter

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