Size / / /

across the atrium faces die to be heard
within the canons of the heart
no word is sacred

beneath the wry shade of the architrave
beyond the sanguine of the heart
tides of lemming gather

herein lies the hard pentagonal truth
that is shaved and fey uneven
as its odd numbered name

archives of uncertainty can forever
appraise the aggravated fortune
of the stranded millions

decapitated faces on a wet black wall
can forever raise their cries
mute as an arbiter's blade

on the defiled atlantes of modernity
turning to bone ancient tunes
the high court listens

in the harrowing canons of our minds
each of us can still evoke
the canticles of rage

 

Copyright © 2002 Bruce Boston

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The author of twenty-eight books, Bruce Boston has published in hundreds of magazines and anthologies, including Asimov's, Weird Tales, Pushcart Prize Anthology, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Nebula Awards anthology. In 1999 the Science Fiction Poetry Association honored him with the first Grand Master Award in its twenty-two year history. He would be delighted if you sent him mail. Bruce's previous publications in Strange Horizons can be found in our Archive.



Bruce Boston is the author of forty-seven books and chapbooks, including the novels The Guardener's Tale and Stained Glass Rain. His writing has received the Bram Stoker Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Asimov's Readers Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. You can read more about him at www.bruceboston.com and see some of his previous work in our archives.
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