Four Fish

Sun Rose

The moon rises behind Jacob
The moon rises
Behind me
And blesses your name
Which never changes
The sun
Rose blooms
On the moon
Name the place
We go together

Heaven for a Day

The devil appears
On the Moon
People fall
From his creamy nothingness
The Sun says nothing
About it. The grass
Below is blue. Giant stakes
Pierce the heart like a country
At night, before breeding
We ate awkwardly
Lit by the shameful
Moon

No More Dying

Everything was exactly as it had been in the 14th century
When we knew the way forward was also the way back.
The devil knocks holding a pair of pink peonies.
The devil knocks on the door. In the house,
We imagine the moment. Inside the house
Is a ghost of the speaker. How long have you been here?
We ask as a rhetorical device, because we know
Already. I have been here since February 2018.
The sky was white, like the house. All of the light
Was in the sky. And were there bunnies strewn
About the path? Yes, there were. Their love
Making littered the sidewalks. And the graves?
They marked the time. Where did this happen?
It happened in Charleston, in New York,
In Paris, where I’ve never been.
When I enter the house, I am waiting for myself.
I’ve been waiting for you, I say. I know, I say.
I’m sorry, I say back. But I don’t respond.
I am already gone, and we close the door behind us.

The Castle

On first leaving the castle
I encountered a purple sun
Rising over a marble fountain
Filled with dead fish. Oh well
How beautiful it is to be a fish
In a boiling hot fountain
So beautiful your shining skin filets itself
And drifts away from your own body
That I might remark upon it
As I leave my castle for a walk
A mental health walk
To the empty palace
To visit my love, also dead and beautiful
Though I am not worried
The sunsets are most beautiful in the kingdom
There is always fish to eat
I have taken a pescatarian diet
Which is good for brain health
And joint pain, which I am developing
In my left foot from all the walks
And because my left foot is clubbed
A trait passed down from my mother
Or my father
As is written in a family history
Found in my nursery, which later
I turned into a lovely master suite
Arduous work it was
Otherwise, I am safe here, healthy
And peerless
Which is not to say lonely
In my bulbous, reflective gown
Shielding me from the purple sun

____
Matthew Dix lives in Charleston, SC.