Huge crystalline cylinders emerge from the water The future Where do they come from the King gushes these talking fish Show me at once We see the writer buried under a collapsing mountain of scribbled-over papers While ink blurts from an overturned bottle Speech is silver the King mutters Silence is They discover a fabulous ancient city Black lake Flag of smoke Where we turned to look Skulls, bats, stars, spirals, lightning bolts Words spoken in anger Flowers for sarcasm The sequence continued to work in references to the brevity of life Garlands of flowers Stars signaling physical impact They discover a fabulous ancient city Under the water None of the inhabitants ‘Be reasonable . . .’ Increasingly faint trace of inked Flowers delicate After that Cat catch The decree Eradicate
Copyright © 2005 by Laura Mullen. From Subject. Reprinted with permission of the University of California Press.