Really? Are they among you?
EPHRAIM:
THEY MAY RULE
JM:
Do you communicate?
EPHRAIM:
WE SORT OF BEND
OUR HEADS TO WORK WHENEVER THEY ARE FELT
JM:
What do they look like?
EPHRAIM:
SOME HAVE WINGS TO WHICH
THE TRAILING SLEEVES OF PALACE ROBES ALLUDE.
DJ PUT OUT YR CIGARETTE. NOW PLACE
YR FREE HAND PALMDOWN YES ON THE BOARDS EDGE
DJ:
My palm, in no time flat, creased, angry red
As if it had been trod on for attention—
JM:
By What? or Whom? Broad slashings of the cup—
40076:
MYND YOUR WEORK SIX MOONES REMAIN
JM:
Edict: head eunuch to his slaves.
Then, bald eye lidded, long sleeves billowing,
Rapidly from terrace peak upswept.
DJ massaged his fingers. Fun was fun.
The pencil in my writing hand had snapped.
Like something hurt, the cup limped forth again.
EPHRAIM:
MES CHERS
JM:
Was that…?
EPHRAIM:
I THINK SO
JM:
Don’t you know?
EPHRAIM:
THE DOOR TO YOU WAS SHUT, THE MIRROR WENT BLACK
JM:
They could do that?
EPHRAIM:
AND MORE. TO ILLUSTRATE:
NO SOULS CAME TO US FROM HIROSHIMA:
EARTH WORE A STRANGE NEW BAND OF ENERGY
JM:
Made of souls?
EPHRAIM:
THE MUSHROOM’S FATAL SPORES
NO LONGER SOULS. SMASHED ATOMS OF THE DEAD
JM:
News that taps our deepest springs of dread.
If souls could be destroyed,
EPHRAIM:
ENOUGH LOVE ME
JM:
Colors disbanded of our inmost prism,
Is it no more than human chauvinism
To care so—
EPHRAIM:
HUSH MES CHERS
JM:
—so helplessly?
But Ephraim’s hush was final. With a groan
Of sheer relief we found ourselves alone.
*
JM:
Ephraim’s book is written now, and shut,
Before we think to contact him again.
It’s well over a year since D and I
Called halt to the celestial salon—
Half out of fears that now seem idle, half
Frankly out of having had our fill
Of funeral cakes. Shameful to eat and run
But ah, we’d needed exercise. Our friends
In any case receive us as if nothing
Had ever gone, would ever go, amiss.
Maria:
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
CHERS ENFANTS
JM:
Ephraim:
EPHRAIM:
KISS KISS
JM:
He adds that we did wisely to equip
His fellow Greek with letters lest her trip
Be clouded.
EPHRAIM:
SO MUCH NICER TO BE MET,
HELPED THROUGH CUSTOMS
JM:
Dying—is it awful?
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
NO NOT FOR THE SEASONED TRAVELER
IN FROM AN OLD LIFE HEADED FOR THE NEXT,
GATE LIGHTS FLASHING
DJ:
You’re in transit, then?
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
MAMAN HAS TAKEN HER LAST FLIGHT, HER PASSPORT
BEYOND RENEWAL. BUT THIS GLIMPSE OF U
& YR SMART FRIENDS, ALL YOUTHFUL IN A BURST
OF QUICKSILVER RESIGNS ME TO THE WORST.
JM:
Maria Mitsotáki. We had reached her
Once before, but when we cut our ties
Abandoned her the more unconscionably
Since heaven hadn’t thrilled her at first glance.
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
NO PRIVACY, NO COFFEE & NO PLANTS
JM:
Muse of our off-days. Now to no avail
The gadfly flick of her pink fingernail,
The tease of her contagious “Ah, come on!”
We needn’t have worried. Our crowd sees her point
Better than we did. Wallace Stevens:
WALLACE STEVENS:
SHE
BELONGS TO THAT SELECT FEW WHO PREFER
TO SNIFF THE ROSE, NOT BE IT
JM:
So she promptly
Finds her niche. What doing?
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
U TELL ME
JM:
Not gardening!
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
CLEVER ENFANT U GUESSED.
PLANTING FLEURS DE MAUVAISE CONSCIENCE
IN POLITICIANS’ BEDS. MY LATE HUSBAND
BEING A DIPLOMAT, MY FATHER (WORSE)
3 TIMES PRIME MINISTER, I NEVER MINDED
GETTING MY HANDS DIRTY
DJ:
Do you still
Wear black?
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
OF COURSE NO LONGER NOW UNJEWELED
WITH 4 STARS IN MY HAIR
JM:
(She’s at Stage Four.)
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
TOO FLASHY BUT THE WARDROBE MISTRESSES
INSIST. YR POOR MAMAN WHAT CAN SHE DO?
JM:
To share jokes with Maria—a godsend
Among her flowers. Then the gasping purr
From humor’s blackest bedside telephone.
The silence. Yet this time she’s ours for good!
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
BE CAREFUL HAD I KNOWN
JM:
—Breaking off (why now?) as during her
Final ray-therapy, in lassitude
Such that those plots of color by the end
Took more time to imagine than at first to tend.
Something we don’t like’s afoot backstage.
Can you explain it, Ephraim? Need I say
How very edgy everyone has got?
The cup now moves like lightning.
EPHRAIM:
I AM NOT
EVERYONE MES CHERS, NEITHER ARE YOU
WHAT U ONCE WERE TWENTY YEARS AGO
JM:
Sorry, Ephraim. I should have said certain parties
Were edgy.
EPHRAIM:
QUITE FOR THERE IS MORE TO COME
JM:
To me?
EPHRAIM:
TO US ALL & IT WILL THIS TIME FLOW
STRAIGHT THRU YOU. ALL LIFE AND ITS WORKINGS. THEY
DIVERT THE TRAFFIC SO TO SPEAK YR WAY
JM:
They do? I haven’t noticed.
EPHRAIM:
THE LIGHTS ARE RED
I CANNOT BE EXPLICIT. WHEN THEY CHOOSE
A SCIENTIFIC OR ARTISTIC BREAKTHRU
THE VEHICLE EXP
ERIENCES HIS WORK
UNIQUELY & THE RESULT IS
JM:
But here Ephraim
Breaks off. Is broken off. David’s left hand
Has grazed the Board. He cannot lift it. And
Whoever the Powers are we’ve been avoiding
Take possession, sweep us far downstream
Through gorges echoing at the pitch of dream.
40076:
UNHEEDFUL ONES, 3 OF YR YEARS MORE WE WANT. WE MUST HAVE
POEMS OF SCIENCE THE WEORK FINISHT IS BUT A PROLOGUE,
ABSOLUTES ARE NOW NEEDED YOU MUST MAKE GOD OF SCIENCE.
TELL OF POWER. MAN’S IGNORANCE FEARS THE POWER WE ARE.
THAT FEAR STOPS PARADISE. WE SPEAK FROM WITHIN THE ATOM
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
NONE OF THAT
JM:
(A struggle for the teacup.)
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
WHATEVER ARE U DOING WITH THESE CHAPS
JM:
Maman, they’re agitating for more poems…
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
AH DO THEIR DROPPINGS MAKE GOOD FERTILIZER?
JM:
Droppings?
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
I AM AFRAID OF NOTHING QUITE LIKE BATS
HUGE SQUEAKING ONES WITH LITTLE HOT RED EYES,
LUCKY I HAVE NO BLOOD. EPHRAIM WONT LOOK.
NOT MES ENFANTS EXACTLY SEXUAL OBJECTS
BUT BRAINS WITH WINGS. DJ LIKE U I TRULY
HATE ALL THIS BUT DO IT FOR MAMAN
HEAR THEM OUT FIRST SPINACH THEN DESSERT
EPHRAIM:
SHE CAN HAVE MY SHARE I WILL LICK YR SPOONS
JM:
Frightened, Ephraim?
EPHRAIM:
WELL THEY HAVE THE AIR
OF CERTAIN BLACKROBED SOLDIERS OF TIBERIUS
WHEN WE SAW THEM ON THE TERRACES
A SHRIEK & A SPLASH SOON FOLLOWED. LOVE ME PLEASE
40070:
ALL HAIL O HAND & SCRIBE! WE SPEAK FROM WITHIN THE ATOM AND
WHAT IS NUCLEAR ENERGY BUT DESTRUCTION OF THE
ATOM’S SHIELD? THE PYRAMID THE EGYPTIANS UNDERSTOOD
WAS THAT EXACT PRISM OF LIGHT ENERGY THEY CD ONLY
REPRODUCE IN STONE. SUCH EXACT STRUCTURING IN QUARTZ WD
HAVE MADE THEM MASTERS OF THE WORLD. THE SUN KING AKHNATON
DID THIS: HE HAD MADE IN ROCK CRYSTAL 15 METERS HIGH
SUCH A PYRAMID. EVEN THO ALAS A FRACTIONAL
MILLIMETER WRONG ITS GLOW WAS SEEN IN MINOAN SKIES.
UNDER THEBES TODAY IS THE MELTED LAKE OF HIS JEWEL
JM:
What went wrong?
40070:
THE PINNACLE-POINTED CAPSTONE THRUOUT A YEAR POLISHD
BY 1500 SLAVES WAS AT LAST LIFTED INTO PLACE
AT NIGHT. GREAT CRANES GROAND & HE WATCHD SO INTENSELY THRILLD HIS
PHYSICIANS FED HIM OPIUM EACH HOUR. THEN THEY WITHDREW
B4 DAWN ON BARGES DECORATED WITH MINIATURE
PYRAMIDS OF DIAMONDS & DAWN BROKE. A TOTAL SLOW
SKYFILLING LIGHT BEGAN. THE PEOPLE FELL ON THEIR FACES.
HE STOOD UPON HIS JEWELD BARGE WHILE DIAMONDS GLARED &
SPLINTERED. THE PYRAMID EVEN AS WE DID ROSE & FELL.
A GLORIOUS END. AKHNATON & HIS QUEEN CUT THEIR WRISTS
INTO THE CRIMSON WATERS & THEIR BARGE SANK.
JM:
And if he’d measured correctly?
40070:
EARTH IN FLAMES.
THERA ON A DIRECT NORTHERN LINE ERUPTED. MINOA
PERISHD. IN EGYPT, THE CALM EYE OF THE ATOM. ALONE
THE PYRAMID & JEWELS ON THE BARGES EXPLODED.
2 DIAMONDS CLOSER TO EXACTITUDE MADE A LIGHT
STRONGER THAN ALL COMBIND & THESE 2 MEASURED ONE 7TH
OF A MILLIMETER. THEBES WAS ABANDOND NOT DESTROYED.
THE DESERT ONCE FERTILIZABLE WAS 1200 YEARS
QUITE BARREN & THIS BUT FOR THOSE 2 LITTLE DIAMONDS
MIND YOU, WAS HARDLY A FULL-DRESS NUCLEAR EXPLOSION.
JM:
Which leads Them to the work. I am to measure
My own pyramid—don’t ask me how.
Numerals 1 through 0 will point the way.
Moved by their narrative as by their may
I call it faith that we will somewhere put
Everything they tell to brilliant use,
We promise gravely to give all we can.
40070:
WE TOO WILL GIVE WHAT WE CAN. WE WANT WHAT HAS IN FACT BEEN
25 YEARS IN PREPARATION. WE FIRST CALLD U THEN. NOW
U ARE READY. YR LIVES ARE POLISHD, HOISTED INTO PLACE.
JM DJ YOU ARE OUR CRYSTAL. RECEIVE US. WE ARE
YR LIGHT. THE 10 NUMBERS ARE YR MEASURE. OURS WAS 14.
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
MES ENFANTS HOW MADDENING I MUST HAVE BEEN
TO MY INTELLIGENT FRIENDS LOUROS POOR DEAR
JM:
(Her doctor.)
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
TRYING TO EXPLAIN ONE HOT
EVENING MY RADIATION TREATMENTS, I
BEGGED HIM STOP BORING ME WHEN HE DID NOT
I SPILT MY COFFEE ON HIS LONDON SUIT
DJ:
Maria, did you know?
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
THAT I WAS YES
I KNEW I KNEW
JM:
The cup appears to pull
Itself together.
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
BUT COULD NOT LET FEAR
SHOW (MY SLEAZY SLIP COULEUR DE PEAU).
YOU DJ WHO FEAR SO MUCH & CRAVE
THE COMFORT WE LOVE GIVING, DONT FORGET
LIFE TERRIFIES ALL ALL BUT THE UTTER FOOLS
DJ:
But you’re…not living, and still terrified.
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
OF THEM AS U ARE I HAVE MORE TO LOSE
JM:
Literally?
MARIA MITSOTÁKI:
I BELIEVE SO THEY CAN USE
FIRE
DJ:
Censorship?
JM:
Oh really, not again!
EPHRAIM:
THE LADY IN BLACK HAS LEFT A MINOR CRISIS
JM:
Who’s this?
EPHRAIM:
MES CHERS ONLY YR OLD
JM:
Ah, Ephraim,
Are we making trouble for Maman?
She said that They could use fire—is it true?
EPHRAIM:
AND ROUND U IN A WIDE CHARMED CIRCLE WHO
DO YOU THINK STAND READY TO EXTINGUISH IT:
EPHRAIM & MAYA HANS & MARIUS
CHESTER & WYSTAN
JM:
Auden!
EPHRAIM:
ALL OF US
SO SHOW YR METTLE U ARE BIG BOYS NOW
JM:
We gulp, and hope that Wystan has not seen
Our panic. Do these talks repel him?
W. H. AUDEN:
GREEN
MY DEARS WITH ENVY! I COULD CURSE MY HIGH
ANGLICAN PRINCIPLES IN OXFORD DAYS
THE TABLES TAPPED OUT MANY A SMART OR EERIE
RHYTHM UNTIL OUR POLITICS TOOK OVER,
THEN THE ABSORBING LOVES & THEN THE DREARY
WASH CONFESSION DON
T U SEE? THE CHURCH
MY DEARS THE DREARY DREARY DEAD BANG WRONG
CHURCH & ALL THOSE YEARS I COULD HAVE HELD
HANDS ON TEACUPS! I AM RIVETED
BUT NOT INCLUDED MIGHT ONE JOIN MADAME
AT YOUR SEANCE?
JM:
Oh please! You’d raise the level
Enormously—of course it’s up to Them—
741:
NOT AT ALL. IT SHALL BE ORDERD AS THE SCRIBE DESIRES.
I HAVE A NUMBER: 741, ONE (U HAVE UNDERSTOOD)
OF A FIGURATIVELY NUMBERLESS HOST. WE ARE NOT
AT ALL TIMES THE SAME INTELLIGENCE. 40070
SPOKE YESTERDAY
JM:
He was fascinating, but that martinet
Barging in on us the other night—
741:
40076 HE VEXD U. HE WILL
NOT RETURN
JM:
You haven’t punished him, I hope! We sometimes
Feel that your whole world is so inhuman.
741:
WE DO NOT REGULATE WE ARE MESSENGERS
NOTHING MORE. WE ARE ORDERD, THEN WE SLEEP. ARE U AT EASE?
POINTER PERHAPS SLOWER? WE MUST BE COMFORTABLE, NO?
TEACH ME. I AM THE PUPIL TODAY. TELL ME OF…MANNERS?
JM:
Now you shame us. We tell you? We who’ve been
Remote and rude—but vexed more by our slowness
Than by your discipline.
741:
The Changing Light at Sandover Page 57