Issue 22: Tony D'arpino

The Tropics of History

the apparent ephemeral

and transient


door of deer

at noon


the buckle

opens like an eclipse


beneath the palms

the smoke


the moving

double


tarnished watch

of the north sea


red inside

the apple chapel          


the wind still in my head

like a skin boat


Cosmographers

nowhere island

and the procession artist

virtually the same


melodica

studied the maps

seraph by seraph


and time has come to find

a forgiveness machine

in the broad gauge dream


of the red chamber

a story stone

and wind storm


the clockwork radio

wants your s-shape

seahorse now


Zoology

birds horses birds

beetles bats and hares

fish and snails and spiders


a little sadness

like a sound

in the river sky


a tart

salt water taffy

for lovers of the night


a margate elephant

footnote of whale

sky pulling sky


every city zoo

a small town cage

rusting trains


feathers

great game

poor metal


a gulf of rats

in the thatch

a horse from the woods


shadows

wet

with stars


A Short History of the Allotment

coal mines

some crops still drop

into the hidden caves


an alphabet

based on vegetables

and grapevines


the spiritual violence of the times

makes people

bad


mad

hidden in the forest

with shadow and rime


a mask of a mammal

lost in the signal

where the drummer sings


stepping stars

to the bones

of tone


unfixed powders

dreams of love

and okra


the changing octopus

of consciousness

dots changing


sleeping

waking

tentacles


this summer thinking

bicycle clouds in my eyes

the fence like a pair of glasses

the landscape in my forehead

two fingers take it blue


thinking about the mill

gets a headache

toy rainbow water

engine of the buttonwoods


the coffee ruined again

by the black hand of memory

the Vermont and the not

(blue) prairie schooner

Tony D’Arpino is an American poet living in England. His most recent book of poetry is Floating Harbour (Redcliffe Press, UK). Other poetry has appeared in Molly Bloom, Barrow Street, The Clearing, Poetry East, and Glasgow Review of Bookss.


Copyright © 2019 by Tony D'Arpino, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.