Devils & Islands: Poems

Bargains Are by Definition Faustian

Bargains Are by Definition Faustian These are the years for mending what can still be mended. Too many breaks already are not healed but ended. As, when the equation’s other half is gone There can be no solution, and the one on one That was the balance is a tipping of the scale Toward being found forever wanting, horseshoe nail Of battles lost, the gallows trapdoor sprung, The weight of doom. I dangle on a too-sharp tongue And too precise. The dust of gold, the empty pan, The younger self strung up now tell me what they can: Be civil to your former lovers, Kindly Poet. If they have botched their lives there is no sign they know it. If you have parlayed yours into a sort of Gounod Kermesse you have paid a price. That much they do know. But who’s to say Mephisto’s not seducible— Where but on his own ground?—or that the crucible All our bargains, not just this, return us to Is not congenial, or that at least will do? 10 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. Having required more of our time, and shaped our ends, Old enemies may mean more now than do old friends, As if a bony finger, pressing down behind us, Distorted values on the scales that so remind us. 11 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...