3 April 2025
4 April 2025

courant

far below the boil of battle
a laughing woman in full spectrum suit
runs through a tunnel of collapsing books

she reverses water into heat
and crypto into the melt
of a moment to pursue a knight

who from his ledge of lies
slips into a morass of other books
the ledgers of the loving and the dead

heraldry is all that’s left him, engrailed movements
in an azure field, a decisive blazon that’s
all gone wrong, pursuivants squealing in a manger laid

the division’s hard to bear, the woman’s ordinaries
confute his shield, her tinctures turn to stains
her blood dries up, she paws the air

his slipping armour’s tarnished
her reflection blurs in it – a dream
of salutary and sole allure