List

Cross.

Nails.

Hammer

Savior.

Some assembly required.

Manducation + 4

Kerry James Marshall, A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980)

Manducation, noun

1. Chewing.

2. Eating.

3. Believing that eating the Eucharist is actually eating the flesh of Jesus.

I

On July 24, 568 BCE

by the River Chebar in Chaldea

(Iraq), Ezekiel, son of Buzi,

the despised, runs into God, whose four understrapping angels ride on

quadruple aquamarine and emerald

beryl wheels.

Yahweh berates him. Where does he get off telling the Israelites, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge"*? Don't worry, be happy!

II

In koinē Greek, "Thanks" is εὐχαριστέω.

Centuries later, Jesus replies, in that adorable Galilean Aramaic

accent of his : “You’re welcome! Have another slice!”

III

Cross.

Nails.

Savior.

Some assembly required.

Divine appearances concluding in a trice,

seize the fleeting aujourd'hui, if nice.

Everything's connected to everything else.

What you do is what's desired.

IV

In the thirteenth century, spectacle

lenses were at first made of beryl.

In German, glasses are hence called Brille,

as is the transparent scale shielding

the eyes of geckos, snakes, and skinks.

The crystalline structure of beryl

*Ezekiel 18:2, 32 (KJV)

September 11, 2024

An Analeptic Swig

Auden's phrase—most of whose readers

doubtless knew no more than you might

what it meant, i.e., a “restorative

or stimulative” belt, snort,

nip, shot, sip, slug, or swig—

“a quantity drunk at one time”

(Webster’s). Well, one thinks, fine!

And also what a poem should be.

Have this analeptic swig on me!

A little of what you fancy does you good!

Envoi

"I always hold in having it if you fancy it / If you fancy it that’s understood / And suppose it makes you fat? I don’t worry over that / ‘Cos a little of what you fancy does you good."—Marie Lloyd (1916)

"L'art est un sale boulot mais il faut bien que quelqu'un le fasse." [Art is a dirty business, but someone has to do it.]

—Fred Vargas, Un Lieu Incertain

September 8, 2024