Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Poem LXXVII: Der Werwulf

Who does not know Christian Morgenstern's exquisite
werewolf poem?

If,
as the werewolf does the magister defunctus in that graveyard
 a werewolf conjured me
I hope that I could be
 one-half as helpful as he


though it is hard to know which half
if any
of the schoolmaster's werewolf-declension
the werewolf found helpful
the werewolf in taking his leave showed gratitude
and decency

such are the dark continuities
between the wer and the wolf
the singular and the plural
such
as the pale scholar must have reflected
is life's
lycanthropic amphibology

and death's




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