Tony Beyer


Commedia


Inferno

in the circle of the suicides
whose punishment is the absence of mirrors
at least the taboo against talking about it is lifted
though comparisons of methods are futile
because all have been equally successful

the circle of the sodomites
is much more chatty and fashionable
and rumour has it that nearly everyone
who’s anyone fetches up there



Purgatorio

neither up nor down
here is the reward of the well-meaning
the modestly ambivalent
bob-each-way punters not unlike the rest of us
who cling to the hope of reprieve and promotion
some time later on in eternity
like a Lotto ticket


Paradiso

we no longer possess
the elegant manual of instructions
inscribed by hand on soft vellum
with hand-tinted illuminations

the spheres turn and angelic messages
are delivered in the form of doves
white lilies    mouse traps    fishing creels    beached whales
and light so fiercely bright
nothing else can be seen


Tony Beyer's new book is Great South Road and South Side (Puriri Press, Auckland 2013).
 
 
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