Desert Alchemy

‘Thus you will receive the glory
of the distinctiveness of the world.
All obscurity will flee from you.’
‘The Emerald Tablet of Hermes’
Aurelium Occultae Philosophorum
Georgio Beato

C5H10O4 and a fingernail,
Bride of Frankenstein by Pochta mail:
Slavic deoxyribonucleotides
steep a Vuitton heel the desert hides.
The monitor strips her cheek of cast-off meat;
a hair-clasp—broken, dangles incomplete
from a torn-out, dyed-blonde, split-end hank
drenched with blood and Pinot Blanc.

Girtab stalks the constellated sand
between the fingers of her milky hand.
As above, so below; the sun
seeks striking vengeance. Both the hunters run.
Black Artemisian, Rex Squamata,
seeks husband, father, killer, martyr.

Nigel Holt

If you've any comment on this poem, Nigel Holt would be pleased to hear from you.