Renal Colic

We must gently obey and endure the lawes of our condition
(Michel de Montaigne, Essais (1580))


In the lee of the autumn equinoctial
Some curtained lunacy hath inspired inner tides
Which have rolled a pebble from minerals
Sifted through the skin of my organs.

I am journeying with the stone
Chamber lye makes its course about it
Nerves take its messages, acute
Yellow is intention
Now I void much gravel
And wonder what it ask of me?

The seventh house and Mars
Observe restraint

I am the hourglass to my own sand
A thwarted clepsydra
Marble in the cervix

Shadows on the CT
A tomography of the innermore
Sectioned, spliced
An image of der schatten
The ghost of gold elusive

In opposition, calling
The descendant,
Cytherean gravity
Nulligravida
A new vessel.

James Piers Taylor, 13th September - London



IMAGE: Ame und Psychor (1962) by Wolfgang Lettl