The Warden
The shape-shifting wanton moon,
wounded by asteroids, swells the soul-
probing subterranean seas.
Wind-torn clouds wrench the skies.
Swollen with wind-afflicted storms, the Cyclope-
tornado stomps the moon’s memory.
In the submerged city, a panic-
driven warden fixes the circuitous traffic.
Seated on the sky-blue aisle
of the star-and-bee studded
cathedral, in awe, I watch
my husband’s congregation pray
for the moon’s tidal orbit to stay
poised with the earth’s memory.
Outside, my friend waits for me.
The Procession
A horseman curbs his horse, points
an introspective index on the horseman
counting his steps. Torn as he seems
with self-resigned pathos, the scapegoat-
sacrifice will likely spill blood on the frozen
feast. Like a rule of inter-connected bones
the fate-led procession progresses.
On the metopes of the museum-mazes,
I watch the kouroi-warriors on the Parthenon
frieze, with sinews flexed, combat the centaurs
until the combatant city-state should steer
the Delian League. Sea-colonies would
spring up around Corfu and the Aegean
like Centaurus star-clusters conceding.
Dr. Emily Bilman is a widely published and anthologized author of poetry, literary essays, and short stories. Her PhD dissertation, The Psychodynamics of Poetry, was published by Lambert Academic in 2010. Slatkine S.A. published La rivière de soi (2010) in Geneva. Modern Ekphrasis (2013) was published by Peter Lang Academic, CH. Her poetry books, A Woman by A Well (2015), Resilience (2015), The Threshold of Broken Waters (2018), Apperception (2020), and The Undertow (2023) were all published by Matador Books UK that just pre-published a new version of Resilience (2025). Her sonnet, “Pathfinder” has been planted on the moon’s southern pole by a time-capsule in 2024. She blogs on http://www.emiliebilman.wix.com/emily-bilman
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