(in memoriam David Jones, 1895-1974)
Hovering Jesus, from this wood
of bitter dust, dismiss us
forever.
The bones of Godefroi
are laid to rest
in a bed of consuming pain:
Jerusalem the climaxed wall and bed.
For it was long, and fetched ruin
and nothing.
And, that ours was a
desperate communion, seemed a harrowing
among us, Lord, we know and forget.
It is for vanity’s sake, none other.
Malformed evil, we ourselves have not
a ‘desperate perhaps’ mislaid.
Shit and dust our bread
of life? Rifter
of life,
cry us seaward, fierceness in the
lamb our own doubts play upon.
Till we have flown the perilous riftbed
in noondead bower of dank remorse,
till we are jumped drumming
from the snares of Babylon.
Yes, yes, we take his bones! Gadfly,
and his bed of pain.