Ibis

based on the beginning of Ovid’s poem of the same name, in the hope his curse will be efficacious on a new subject

time’s up, this is toothless,
find just one hostile word:
no, it’s me i’ve targeted
one stops that staying so
who? wont say, but couldnt
leave me in the cold
like the rest of you
no: prods, blabs, scavenges &
strikes while the iron’s hot
seeks that I have nothing
shit! stick you here instead,
he’s kinder, black sea hears,
perhaps, but you trod down
my neck me lying there
& I’m your enemy ever.
wet & fire will mix
sunlight & moonlight, east wind
& west wind, warm wind
from cold pole, concord of
dead brothers’ smoke, autumn spring
summer winter dawn dusk share,
before i lower my weapon,
hatred’s full duration, wolf peace
& you’re the sick sheep.
this is it, atypical preliminary,
(don’t make me use iambics)
a father & daughter’s blood.
so, with precedent, fuck you
& yours, obscurant cast shadow,
under ibis biannual no lie
sea-gods land-gods &c. listen up,
earth, waves, sky, stars, sun,
moon, night, spinners, true river,
snake-haired, fauns, satyrs, lares, streams,
demigods, old gods of chaos,
be here, this & more, more
than i can say or think.
& no delay: you here
help me you here cry
put on black, & you,
ibis, dress for your funeral
expose throat for knife’s entry:
earth no food, rivers no
water, air no breath, heat
& light denied by sun,
moon, stars, no use
no passage, exile & beggar,
pain in body & mind,
day & night, pathetic
& unpitied, laughed at, hated,
ignored, you want to die
& can’t, racked body, trapped
ghost, slow, a twisting death.
this will all take place.

Alex Grafen lives in London. He has had poems in CUMULUS and amberflora.