FAR FROM THE FORTY-SEVENTH STAR

“Come with me and we’ll go to God together
in a city called Clovis
like the Merovingian kings.”

*

No.

*
*
*

To the hills of Burgundy,
rich as wine in their history,
we went. He so wished that we
would make our peace
in his medieval homeland.

*

Like courtiers we walked
into the ruins of the Romanesque
and feasted in the company
of Radbod and Brunhilde.


*

I would give up salt and bread
for dew in a claret cup
but only chardonnay and champagne flourish
in the land of the long-haired kings.

*
*
*

Come, drive the nails through my veins –
why wait till morning
when the rosebuds are thirsting for rain
at the foot of the cross?