Two
poems from Gregory Crosby's The Court of Erros
followed
by a note on the author
XIII
The
decree, paper, mere photostat, held between
his hands like some breathing thing, living,
some animal that acts the part of Death for the tribe:
harbinger, squawking omen. He holds it
lightly, closely, one thumb caressing, dumbly,
the judge's name (a woman,
naturally)
– holds it for a flashpaper moment
the way he held her hips, thumbs encased
in bunched silk, steady, entering her as she held
fast to the sink, eyes coming back to his in the
mirror, a noblewoman staring, lively from
centuries out
thanks
to an artist's patient hand & eye.
Held her, high in that narrow and spare hotel room
on Pine Street, & entered, it seemed then,
History; crossed over into it with a moan. Her
mouth is open, something coalesced on her teeth,
tongue. An echo, straining: truer decree.
XVII
In sleep, nothing forgotten; insomnia,
nothing forgiven, not even this. Curled,
naked, on top of the covers, waiting to
wake in one's own skin, even if icy at
3 or 4am. Too warm or too worn?
The Emperor's new hairshirt
is
unseen, real enough. Look how he
bleeds from the cuffs. Curled, a shaving
from some larger block of existence,
some way of being shaped by scraping,
a hardness gouging, an undressing.
Undressed, Frank refuses to unmake
the
bed he has made (or sleep in it).
Conjures a demon lover, fresh from below
to keep him warm, wills it, can almost feel
the enveloping, the blistering embrace,
Shadrach in the furnace. Hold me, he says;
spooning, medicine & sugar at once.
©
Gregory
Crosby was born in Michigan but spent his formative years in
Las Vegas, where he was an art critic, cultural commentator
and freelance journalist. His poems have appeared in several
publications, including Jacket, Court Green, [sic]
and the South Carolina Review. He holds an MFA from the
City College of New York, where he most recently won the Marie
Ponsot Poetry Prize, and where he currently teaches as part
of the adjunct faculty.
If you need more, please let me know. Further information can
also be found on my author's website, www.bruceberger.net
