Mark Lamoureux: The Devil

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

XV The Devil

Looping horns akimbo, high

as a gloaming bat above

the avenue where the roots

of trees push up flagstones

like the lids of coffins, outside

of time:

within the lit windows is what happens

in secret—reverse 

mitosis; the ascending spirits

pluck the harp of the spindle: 

night & day conjoined

in the mystery of their 

origin.  Indigo stains are the braille

of foxglove’s open-

throated hymns as the one sun

is ringed by melancholia—

godhead rides the trap groove

spinning around 

the ruby of the third eye.

A hoof steps quiet upon the black 

ice & radiates a crackling bloom

of unrealized timelines, walks

soundlessly across the expanse

of frozen mirror upon mirror upon 

mirror, communicating 

as braided wire or the warzone

of the splitting allele.  All shall be

well & all manner 

of things shall be undertaken

under the full stop 

of the unjoined caduceus.

Open thy arms

& receive

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Editor’s Note: These poems are part of our collection, Haunted: Tarot Poems

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Mark Lamoureux lives in New Haven, CT. He is the author of four full-length collections of poetry: It’ll Never Be Over For Me (Black Radish Books, 2016), 29 Cheeseburgers / 39 Years (Pressed Wafer, 2013), Spectre (Black Radish Books 2010), and Astrometry Orgonon (BlazeVOX Books 2008),. His work has been published in print and online in Elderly, Denver Quarterly, Jacket, Fourteen Hills and many others. In 2014 he received the 2nd annual Ping Pong Poetry award, selected by David Shapiro, for his poem “Summerhenge/Winterhenge.” He teaches at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, CT.