Poem

as Sosen painted monkeys: a blur of fuzz from which emerges the smiling wise & naked face SALLY PURCELL to A. CH. Within the great night of magic wizards move gracefully, sure-footed; can tell from its pattern where the diamond glass will crack, what words infallibly attract the queenly deviless to dance or bed, what planetary fire streams down informing talisman of crystal at its hour. The false magician's bartered self must run the labyrinth's gauntlet, spinning, whirling deeper to its core, unable to pause, to will a moment's rest At every turn there hurtles up to meet him a painted, fairground Queen of Cards; shifting shapes that mock his desperation hunt him ever down to the silence where his own scorched image stands before a weary mirror webbed with scars. 42 ...