[New-Poetry] Poems by others -- D.M.Black

[James Cervantes]

What a marvelous, muscular poem.  Thank you for introducing me to D.M.
Black.
- Jim

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:

> The Red Judge
>
> We shut the red judge in a bronze jar
> - By "we", meaning myself and the black judge -
> And there was peace, for a time.  You can have enough
> Yowling from certain justices.  The jar
> We buried, (pitching and swelling like the tough
> Membrane of an unshelled egg), on the Calton Hill.
> And there was peace, for a time.  My friend the black
> Judge was keen on whisky, and I kept
> Within earshot of sobriety only by drinking
> Slow ciders, and pretending
> Unfelt absorption in the repetitive beer-mats.  It was a kind of
> Vibration we noticed first - hard to tell
> Whether we heard it or were shaken by,
> Whether the tumblers quivered, or our minds.  It grew
> To a thick thudding, and an occasional creak
> Like a nearby axle, but as it were
> Without the sense of "nearby". - The hard flag-
> stones wriggled slightly under the taut linoleum.
> I supported the black judge to the nearest door
> - Detached his clutched glass for the protesting barman -
> And propped him against a bus-stop.  Maybe
> It was only a pneumatic drill mating at Queen Street,
> Or an impotent motor-bike - the sounds grew harsher.
> My gestures stopped a 24 that spat
> Some eleventh commandment out of its sober driver,
> But I was more conscious of the rocking walls,
> The pavement's shrugging off its granite kerb...
>
> Quite suddenly the night was still: the cracks
> In the roadway rested, and the tenements
> Of Rose Street stood inscrutable as always. The black judge
> Snored at his post.  And all around
> The bright blood filled the gutters, overflowed
> The window-sills and doorsteps, soaked my anyway
> Inadequate shoes, and there was a sound of cheering
> Faintly and everywhere, and the Red Judge walked
> O thirty feet high and scarlet towards our stop.
>
> D.M.Black
>
>       http://www.dmblack.me.uk/
>
>
>
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