Issue 15: March 2008

Chris McCabe | Lorraine Mariner | Kathryn Maris | Simon Smith | Siriol Troup

KATHRYN MARIS

The Boatman

Ruddy rower of the boat called Merry Man, merry
man of the dark marsh, host of the party barge.

His arms are like a farmer’s: slight but hard
from the drag and the drag of a task—

the oars that lap the flat of the black bog
until the reedmace sways its kinky heads.

I see the boat from the land where I stand.
I can see the greasy distance, and the boatman’s grin.

He likes his drink. His myopia is a droll trick.
When he snakes into the far-off, his focus goes vague

and he’s known to mistake a quarrel for a dance,
an embrace for containment, ardor for arduousness.

I am the same. I see what I want when he is far,
when love goes distant. I can see him and then I can’t

and then I can and, when I can, I see the merry man,
the merry man is really just the ferryman.

 

Gangster

I was educated against the love of the gangster.
But hunger: I must thank you
for teaching me possibility.

My hungry friend stole dates.
He ate them in the line of vision of security.
But I am far too soft to sleep in jail.

So I sold myself to the gangster.
The gangster took out my grief
with a blow to the brow. And grief

was only the first thug exterminated for love of me.
I owed him. I owed him big,
this armchair sociopath, gray-eyed genius of devotion,

jazz-lover, drinker of gin, square-built guardian
at the bookshelf or ice box or phonograph,
amending my education, pointing me out in nature

to my mislaid self. When I’d gorged like a tick
he let me go, forcing a gift into my loving fist.
We were too hard for tears.

The gift—a sterling box—was an heirloom of plunder
inscribed with a fine lie: Tutto è possibile.
He said Believe this lie and it will save you.

Like the gangster, I believe
sometimes in freedom and other times in annihilation.
He waited for my return. He waited for my determination.

 

It Was A Gift From God

1 And   the    Lord   said    “Go   to   the
woman  who   toils  in   the  grove  and
give   her   this  box.”   And   the  angel
asked  not  what  was  in  the  box, but
delivered it to the woman.
2 The  woman  knew  the  ways of  the
Lord,  so when  she saw  that the box
was full of grief, she was not afraid.
3 God   said   “Take   this   grief,  for   it
belonged    to   the   One   Who   Came
Before  You, and   she  can  bear  it  no
longer.  Take  it  to  the  East, as far as
the next land.”
4 The   woman  did  as  God   bid, but a
soldier   saw   what   she   carried  and
threw her before the King.
5 The   King  asked   “Why   have   you
dishonored    our     land    with     your
beast?”   She   replied,   “It   is   not  a
beast,   but  a  burden,  and  the  Lord
hath   made   me   the  beast   of   this
burden.”   The   King  was   angry  and
said,  “Behold  again  the  contents  of
your box!”  She  looked  again  and  lo
there was a beast where before there
was  none.  For  this  she  was  locked
away.
6 She    prayed   and   the   Lord   was
merciful.  “You   were   burdened   with
a  beast and  now you are  captive like
the beast.  Go to the farthest sea and
the  beast will  follow  you,  and  there
he will leave you forever.”
7 So  the lord  sent an  angel  to  open
the  prison door  and  it  came to  pass
that  the  woman was  followed  to the
sea  by  the  beast  who, when  it was
night,    fled     to    the     dunes   and
withdrew from this world

 

 

The Devil Got Into Her

1 The    woman    appealed     to    the
Doctor,  for  she  could  not  be  cured.
The  Doctor  had  the  likeness  of  the
Lord,  and  the   Lord   spoke  through
him:   “You    are    overcome    by    a
demon.  When  it is  slain,  it will  harm
you no longer.”
2 The  woman asked  how the  demon
should  be  slain,  and  the Doctor said
there was a man but that she must be
the one to find him.
3 The  woman  found a  man who said
he could  slay  the  demon, but  he did
not,  for  he was a  demon himself and
full  of  trickery.   So  the  woman  slew
the  man  and  was not  punished,  for
the  King  of  the land was  glad to  be
rid of him.
4 She  returned to the Doctor and told
of  her  failure.  “Tell  me  the  name of
this   demon  that   has   made  me  its
home.”  But  this he would  not  reveal.
5 So again she set out.   An angel took
the  form  of a  crone and  said,   “Find
the  man  in the west  whose  name is
‘Slay’”.
6 So  the woman  found  that man and
he  said  to  her  “God  hath  forbidden
me  to  rid  you  of  this demon.  But  in
the  city  to  the  east  there  is  a man
who  can  help  you.”  And  he  told her
where to find him.
7 The  man in  the  east  was  kind,  so
the  woman   came  to   live  with   him.
But  he  was  kind  to  the  demon  too,
for  he  did  not  kill  it,  but  placed it a
box.   And   the   woman   was  healed,
but  still  she   feared  the  demon  and
viewed the box askance.

 

 

Kathryn Maris, an American poet from New York City, is the author of a collection of poems, The Book of Jobs, and teaches at Morley College in London.