from a report dated Thursday, March 20, 1355 (after Vespers)
And then one astrologer
one past night discovered a star
birth another star that grew
to part the clouds, spin, and drop
beyond the village swamp:
“I found nothing there
with smoke plumeing out
of nothing above me. Something
barbaric bleated or shrieked
as I whimpered my rite prayers.
They shone silver and green,
tall as me, with giant opal eyes.
They touched me. It felt like god
abandoning me before harming me
once again for the final, last time.
They were clean. With intent,
they pissed in the lake, the river.
The well twinkled like gold
that turns to lead. They touched rats’
fleas. God, everything was poison.
They departed within a wink
and smile. This was before
my children only bore twenty-two
adult teeth, they too having
been touched, as if by God.”
For twenty-two years, Tom Holmes was the founding editor and curator of Redactions: Poetry & Poetics. Holmes is also the author of five full-length collections of poetry, including The Book of Incurable Dreams (Xavier Review Press) and The Cave, which won The Bitter Oleander Press Library of Poetry Book Award for 2013, as well as four chapbooks. He teaches at Nashville State Community College (Clarksville). His writings about wine, poetry book reviews, and poetry can be found at his blog, The Line Break: thelinebreak.wordpress.com/. Follow him on Twitter: @TheLineBreak