SWEENEY AMONG THE NIGHTINGALES

os, πεπληγμαι καιριαν πηγην ἑσω

WHY SHOULD I SPEAK OF THE NIGHTINGALE? THE
NIGHTINGALE SINGS OF ADULTEROUS WRONG.

PENECK Sweeney spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.

The circles of the stormy moon
Slide westward to the River Plate,
Death and the Raven drift above
And Sweeney guards the horned gate.

Gloomy Orion and the Dog
Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;
The person in the Spanish cape
Tries to sit on Sweeney's knees

Slips and pulls the table cloth
Overturns a coffee cup,
Reorganised upon the floor
She yawns and draws a stocking up;

The silent man in mocha brown
Sprawls at the window sill and gapes;
The waiter brings in oranges
Bananas, figs and hot-house grapes;

The silent vertebrate exhales,
Contracts and concentrates, withdraws;
Rachel née Rabinovitch
Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;

16

MR. APPOLINAX

Ω τῆς καινότητος. Ἡράκλεις, τῆς παραδοξογίας. εὐμήχανος ἄνθρωπος.

HEN Mr. Apollinax visited the United States
His laughter tinkled among the teacups.

I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the
birch-trees,

And of Priapus in the shrubbery

Gaping at the lady in the swing.

In the palace of Mrs. Phlaccus, at Professor Channing-Cheetah's
He laughed like an irresponsible fœtus.

His laughter was submarine and profound

Like the old man of the sea's

Hidden under coral islands

Where worried bodies of drowned men drift down in the green silence,
Dropping from fingers of surf.

I looked for the head of Mr. Apollinax rolling under a chair,
Or grinning over a screen

With seaweed in its hair.

I heard the beat of centaurs' hoofs over the hard turf

As his dry and passionate talk devoured the afternoon.

"He is a charming man"--"But after all what did he mean?"--

"His pointed ears . . . he must be unbalanced,"--

"There was something he said that I might have challenged."

Of dowager Mrs. Phlaccus, and Professor and Mrs. Cheetah

I remember a slice of lemon, and a bitten macaroon.

52

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