HALIFAX; DECEMBER 1917

I.
the water sweeping up the shanties
crawling fast up the bank
pieces of tugs and ferries airborne
in a column of water and fire
nothing for it but the belly in the ditch
wince while the shockwave laps your neck

II.
scientists on up from New Mexico
to measure with their polished shoes
how far in each direction the trees
were mown, felled neat like a lawn
men in civilian clothes calmly pacing
radiating nearly to the island's heart
collecting raw data for kill zone diameters

III.
in the 40s transposing those concentric circles
from maps of our harbour to Hiroshima, Nagasaki

Goya's Witches' Sabbath

a twisted mindful


of grotesque gargoyles
sprawling


in witchfinger


brushstrokes

half human cabals
cankering 'cross


kitchen walls
mildew spreading
a nightmare mural
in the pitch black


pigments of madness

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