The enclosures
The enclosures - Lawrence Sail
The enclosures
Four unexpected meadow flowers slide out from
the sky-blue letter you sent from Kyrgyzstan –
a clover with pink bristles, a blue vetch
faded to light mauve, a yellow crucifer,
a white chickweed. They lie here, tiny, flattened,
intact – as delicate as any of the wreaths
found buried with the ithyphallic boy-king
and all his rubble of riches: the collarette
with little love-apples and berries of woody nightshade
strung on strips of palm; or the farewell garland
of olive leaves, blue water-lily petals
and cornflowers, which someone left on the dark threshold.
These, too, paling with absence, recast love’s spell
as open pathos, and time as immortelles.
from The World Returning (Bloodaxe, 2002), © Lawrence Sail 2002, used by permission of the author and the publisher