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Poems
by Richard Magahiz
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Reading
First was the Three of Toothpaste Caps,
its brown snail leaving
a glossy trail through sphagnum moss,
the Legal Sidebar
in which a shaft of sunlight
divides the face of the card
in two with its brilliance,
along the other side of the diamond
the Six of Clothespins
which depicts scraps of
unfamiliar national flags
against a green sky,
finally at the bottom
the Ace of Vehicles
bearing a red steamroller
gaudy with antique brass trim.
Madame Allumette
next said something in a tongue
I could not make out, then took
my right hand in both of hers.
"Undue haste is your temptation.
Take time to allow circumstances
to disrobe themselves
revealing what they truly are."
For me it was a voice
attuned to the ways
the cosmos was deploying me
in its grand scheme.
A flush in my face,
sweat starting at my hairline,
without words, I nodded.
"You stand to gain much," she continued,
"but perhaps at too great a price."
Then, nearly whispering,
looking straight into my eyes,
"I speak of regret."
She tapped the pile
of face-down cards on the table
inviting the cut.
The next card turned was the Rare Primate,
gazing up from the spread
with huge sad eyes.
Madame placed this to one side,
dealt three more face down.
Smoke rising from their edges
was the last thing I recall.
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The Celebrity
Against an indistinct
field of
bright flashes
set against
ultramarine blue
the finely sculpted features
of an individual stand out,
ring lights,
a bounce umbrella flash
at the edge of the frame.
Their expression midway between
fury and lust,
eyes lie half-lidded behind
unusually dark lashes
as though resisting
the pressure of some viewer's gaze.
Strong hands are expressive,
the left reaching
for a suspended
silver goblet,
the right with index finger
slightly raised at chin level
to emphasize some key point.
The garment is
gradient-washed,
smoothly blending against
skin contours by the jaw
and the expanse of
upper torso and
smooth shoulders.
The figure is
androgynous to the
point of uncanniness,
the lower portion
of the scene obscured
by falling
chrysanthemum blossoms
in autumnal shades.
Light shines off
the waves of hair
heaped nearly to the
top of the frame
giving the impression of
imposing height.
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Foul Pole
The third Major Arcana card, the Foul Pole, shows a yellow-painted pole with a net to its against a stormy sky, pennants whipping behind it, while an enigmatic figure leans over a handrail stretching with a gloved hand. From the angle on the card the viewer cannot see the Foul Pole net, thus making it possible to represent either a left- or right-field Foul Pole equally. Do not prophets speak of angels massing at its tip, rising from the mundane realm to embody the ineffable, and in conjunction with the Umpire it connotes discernment as applied to all creation?
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Robin Wyatt Dunn, with Perchance
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Richard Magahiz tries to live an ordered life in harmony with all things natural and created but one that follows unexpected paths. He wrangles computers as a day job but imagines a time when life might center around other things. Richard appeared previously in Bairns 107, 109, 121, 125, 128, and 136. His website is https://zeroatthebone.us/
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