song of dolores (2008, 1937, 1640)


   


It’s tru c vrai 

Each night she casts her runes
In standard three tense formation;
All that is, that calls, that will be.



If he calls her baby, he might feed 
Her goat and tattoo his name on 
Her thigh. If he does, if he calls.


She rocks slowly as the 10 pisastre
Lido spins slowly to a gentle halt;
Le Dix de Deniers, her first sign.

Someone is singing far away





Hall-i-day's lay-dy, 
he-heey Johhhnny's girl, 
itsa no goo-od business t’kill a man, 
but little girl, ‘ow could you have known?





Danny is at the door telling her
To zip her boots, hitch her shorts,
And pack those things away before

She walks

Or hears clapping in her head 
From 1937, sees an English general,
The Kit Kat club, a girl called Amra







93% humidity








His body shudders as he sinks
Down through wet Cairo in June.
Wipe me down, baby, with a towel.

Amra wipes



The Suez canal, l'Eve future, his
Face an antenna in a storm,
Coming into and out of reception.











She just goes through his eyes.
You alone makes you alone;
Lune à l'envers, your second sign.












Halliday's lady lifts her skirt for
Our Johnny of the Bare Thigh,
Patrons, punters, future's Eve.

A man who says Y'can't read Dee,
Agrees that he don’t quite care to,
Says, they’ll only break yer heart.







She walks the corridor to blue,
The pole to pink, sings Johnny
softly singing Juh-Johnny's girl. 





While



Dolores walks on blanket ground
Mottled purple by the flower that
Several countries claim their own,

Huana, the new girl, spins around,
an ouroboros tattooed on her hip bone.
Le Jugement, Dolores, your third sign.








I am fourwalled with myself
thinking of Egypt : Athanasius,
give it up, I hear the voices say.


Brothers, I cannot.







At school, Dolores wrote names,
Circled them with hearts drawn
In metallic mint rollerball pen

First 

Steph, then Paul, Gil, Jackson;
and even her brother once, Yul,
When he spent the night in jail


But strong-like,

Huana sips gin to herself,
Snarls Fuck Off to all the johns,
Asks Dolores your rising sign,



hon?

It’s pisces, isn’t it? you’re swimming

Inside the ouroboros' ring where
Space stutters and does but remains
Time to be herded in circles.











Huana in metallic ball point pen.
Huana too is water, she could order
Oh-nly pickles, Jay y’hear?! for tea.









Huana says, I do not like Other 
Girls, I am jealous of all women,
Even my granma, and she knew it.




I look at their hair and think of 
Touching their lips, of their faces
On pillows, and compare my own.






Dolores is number 4 on her speed
Dial, Huana calls to ask about His 
Past and where they all are now?











Dee, did y’hear 

A two-headed snake was born here, 
And its got both *looks down nods*
It’s a no good sign, Dolores, uh-uh.





It is not quite as you might think:
Hieroglyphics, your honour, in 1650.
We didn’t even have the cartouche.




Inside the ouroboros' ring 
Space stutters but remains 
Time to be herded in circles.

If it does, if it falls.

If it is, if laid thus.