Poem XII: Warning from the Grail Hermit

Warning: few meanings are spiritual
in the literal sense of the word.

You can see through transparent symbolism

the details twist together

to form a bloody spiral.

Orthodox? Nay:

arising from the damaged memory

of an aureate demigod

are the things it rescued from oblivion:

things cut from the papers

and blogs usurping love and reason

a square of cloth, a sweet emulsion

retaining forged a physiognomy,

or else a misplaced spear, a bowl of blood.

(The hermit crashes into the wood

running through the night in crazy clothes

stomach crammed

with  voles and mice and nightingales

and unspecific bits of cloth

never to be seen or heard from again.)