THE APPOINTMENT

 Flamingo silk.
 New ruff, 
the ivory ghost 
of a halter.
 Chestnut curls,

*

commas behind the ear.

"Taller, by half a head, 
than my Lord Walsingham.
"

*

His Devon-cream brogue,
malt eyes.
 New cloak 
mussed in her mud.


*

The Queen leans forward,
a rosy envelope of civet.

A cleavage

*

whispering seed pearls.

Her own sleeve 
rubs that speck of dirt

*

on his cheek.
 Three thousand 
ornamental fruit baskets
swing in the smoke.


*

"It is our pleasure 
to have our servant trained 
some longer time 

*

in Ireland.
" Stamp out 
marks of the Irish.

Their saffron smocks.


*

All curroughs, bards
and rhymers.
 Desmonds
and Fitzgeralds

*

stuck on low spikes,
an avenue of heads to
the war tent.



*

Kerry timber 
sold to the Canaries.

Pregnant girls

*

hung in their own hair
on city walls.
 Plague 
crumpling gargoyles

*

through Munster.
 "They spoke 
like ghosts crying
out of their graves.
"

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