Fool’s Journey
To shuffle these portents,
fate a slight weight only
fits entire in then hand.
And with but a tip,
a slip of the finger
destiny flips
out of my grasp
and into the air
twitched into
a Hanged Man, a Moon
Judgment, Lovers
mute with the future
in the now
a moment yet
and another card falls into place
slitting my finger
on Death’s split edge
from too many questions frayed
Daphne’s Praise
As into a sleeve
I slip my arm through bark,
fingers within a twiggèd glove
grasping now,
then letting drift
both withered leaves and petal
cradled in my palm
a blossoming of birds rises
the scent of their flight
incense,
a prayer soaring
feathers ascend
swifts and swallows
carry their praise
upward
The Laughing Dead
How to translate the laughter of the dead
blurred words from another room, barely heard,
chimney smoke in late autumn
whence you know not,
nor whether something were asked of you or told
murmur and evasion (which of us though?)
woven in departed declensions some other where
Burden
A song shrugs its burden
lifts gravity’ s hold
no longer knows
the weighted duty
to tell someone
something
shifts
a sense shouldered
a refrain carried
over and again
lost like its bearings
nor homing device
longer in its hollow bones
frail as it is now lawless
remains only form to tell
what is flown
what cannot be repeated
what cannot be borne
Ghostwrit
She penciled in her diary
days faded as phantoms
letters in lead hoping
to erase the traces of living
like lines written on the face
on the palm
of a hand that gave nothing away
not even this book
though we who came after
opened it all the same
scried into the faint words
ciphered by the shade
of lettering left for (the) dead
Angelisa Fontaine-Wood long ago fled the sun of North Florida, and has lived now over half her life devoted to arcana and champagne in a French garret, under the shadow of a castle, along with her husband, fourteen imaginary cats --all named – and but few ghosts, who mostly remain nameless.
Her work has appeared in khōréo, NewMyths, Penumbric, and elsewhere. Thoughts on cabbages and kings at: https://angelisawood.blogspot.com
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