Written by Hart L’Ecuyer 
Art by Hojjat Azampour 

Published 4/18/2014

Art by Hojjat Azampour 

With phrases borrowed from Ezra Pound

The reddening is upon us. Worn virgin again
By an advent of greasy scales, you sheared
And accused and acquitted by the kingdom judge
WHO MADE HIS HEAD A LAMP
Through glass rivers darkly
Land armored where the naked and wasted
Fountain shoots tickets for the far-out fools
Unbarred on sandbar parking lots
And teatime mess-toasting rewritten riddles
Gospelled throaty, in voices breaking: “For every lady
A castle, / Each place strong.” Holding
Game-checkered court in disciple walls, the god
“Was all there was of power,” and strafed unionizing
The net-caught “wallow of hell,” hallowing
AND MADE ITS HEAD A LAMP
To feed a field of the idol-eyed lost.
“What could he do but play desperate chess,
And stir old grudges?” Happen upon
IMMEDIATELY INSTANT NICE MAN KINDLY
Reeled fish by scripted repetition grown,
Moth-like mark zero the light-come calendar
Dubbing wardens the holders of tongue
AND MAKE OUR HEADS A LAMP
And birth give heads to after death inherit
Unspearable flanks by gardens knotted. To “sing of war”
SING OF WAR
Wave at the spam-flagged phalanx of the right wing
THAT MADE ITS HEAD A LAMP
That swearing saw multiplied the last pie rotten
Buffet not a piece but a fork
And evil strip their togas free
To part the zombie bodies
From bone turned into brine
Into red rapids and viscous good
AND MAKE OUR HEADS A LAMP
Driven out, dragging ribbons and possessing bells
To freak out the deacons dispatched. MELT
THE WELL-RECEIVED
Mask of the sun-sued God.

 

 

Hart L’Ecuyer has been previously published in the school magazinesSisyphus and Gadfly. He self-published a long poem called “A White Cross” in August 2011, which he read and spoke about at the Ethical Society of St. Louis. In 2012 he moved around a bit and put his shoulder to the wheel. In June 2013 he attended the New York University Writers in New York poetry workshop, where he wrote “A Subway in New York with Hart Crane.” In August 2013 he read selections of poems as part of the River Styx “Hungry Young Poets” reading series at the Tavern of Fine Arts and at Webster Groves’ Art on the Town festival. He is an English/ Creative Writing major at Webster University, a member of the Speech and Debate team, and the founding editor of the Phizzog Review. | 
(Updated Dec. 2013)

Hojjat Azampour is an Iranian animator and illustrator. He has a BA in graphic design and an MA in animation. He currently lives in Tehran. | 
(Updated Dec. 2013)