poem06 Aug 2018 07:46 am
Vivian Speaks Five Names by Megan Arkenberg
1. Taliesin
I am the blank space inside
the first word you ever spoke.
I am an extraordinary
nothing,
less than shadow,
less than silence.
Beautiful boy, riddle me this.
2. Ambrosius
I know every spell you ever cast.
I know your secret, too. You
were always drunk on everything,
on champagne sunlight, cigarette
butts spelling secret messages
on sidewalks, in gutters
but looking at the stars; your magic,
late afternoon smell of Chinese
banyan leaves rustling in cracked
concrete, gasoline breezes. Those trees
clinging through earthquake, through fire,
waiting for a riddle, a night,
a rush, a car, a boy
so drunk on everything that he
could hear the dragons fighting in their roots.
3. Merlin
Whosever pulls this sword
from this three-in-the-morning
stab of insomnia, right here
between my eyes,
between the whine of the train on the bridge
and the car alarm in the parking lot,
between me and you and
regret, regret, regret
is probably a myth, and sorry to tell you,
pretty boy,
but I’m fresh out of faith,
imagination, dreams.
4. Emrys
Beautiful boy, riddle me this.
Pretty blackbird eyes
birdsong Welsh-poetry boy:
how fast were you going that night,
and what was the name of the neighbor
who woke and called the police
and did she cry, later, and
did you know how fast you were going,
and what is the sound
a tree makes when it’s being
enfolded
by the world?
5. Cambion
I looked away.
Only for a moment, I looked away.
The tree opened its arms and
    wrapped
itself
         around
     you
(the world).
Page of an edition (1907, J. Gwenogvryn Evans) of the Black Book of Carmarthen (1250).
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