Seth Copeland



from Sequence for Wichita Flowers

(1)     pitcher’s clematis

brooding goth bat
  
                                      leaves—open palms,
                            kris daggers, green high collars
                for capes : blooms—damson phantasmagoria,
         bowed ghouls, capuchin prayers muttered in lisped latin
    ranunculaceae relinquere in mare mortuum tuum, filii tui pascunt

beyond them static ribcages of broken tree limbs
noisy hairs, thick and gray

                                                               felled by lightning or old age, leaving room for
                                                roots in rain to soak and suck and effervesce chlorophyll
                                                                                          through sticky veins and channels until the hanging metallic
                                                                hunches burst out and begin their sulking shameful posture

                                                                                I see them
                                                                                closest
                                                                                 to the valley
                                                                                taking in flying rain
                                                                                drooped
                                                                                in marshy
                                                                                outskirts
                                                                                of the ledges
                                                                                strewn with mine tailings
                                                                                and shale. 

Totem


votive feathers off a thunderbird
who thrashed till we felt guilty
about taking out
our people’s very symbol


O soft coital merchant
                                                            Thou art detaining me.



Seth Copeland is an English graduate of Cameron University and lives with his wife in Lawton, Oklahoma. His prior work has appeared or is forthcoming in Brickplight, Menacing Hedge and E•ratio. His first book, Diviner’s Whiskey, will be coming out this winter.
 
 
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