ANTIPHONY | ANTI-PHONEY VII.
King of unfathomable mass, crouching
vulnerably in exile, your zipped-up cherubim
coy (vain may hide), garments jacented
& surrendered, inaccessibly quartered, now
return per procurationem… (unzoned).
For the leaders have budged, & usurpers
picked off. Undo karma’s yo-yo rule, gloss,
intervene by deific design.
†
In this new-folding love, a young kite
gilts town-wards. A slick of fine light
quivers—not a quick vision—contours,
jags & veers, apprenticed to the east.
She experiences extra height, reaches—
now—for otherness in azure:
Alpha & Zulu, Beginning & End.
This journey into lazuli deepens,
a weighty jewel of a sun-bound
harkening, reaches (again) the memory
& malady of a doubtable god, part-
unseen, emergent.
On kite wings, we qualify.
ANTIPHONY | ANTI-PHONEY VIII.
Capital gain. This mercantile kingdom’s economy
privileges [the] just, [the] redeemed, [the] released, [the] kneeling.
Bankers & actuaries favour restricted utility. No realistic
value was gained by inveigling Zion’s economists
or ennoblers when exchange mechanisms fix all value
to zero.
New communicants gather, equally justified, equally bankrupt—
stock losses accelerate
net losses accumulate
in damage-limitation your new god divests
your tradeable monetisable commodities
—& fall on their knees, exposed. If promises to yield unto Zion
such debt & equity (intact) which pertains to Zion—human
liabilities, losses; kept unaged—[who] benefits [from this] example
of sacrificial capital discipline?
& having pocketed everyone’s useable money—Sweet Jesus!—
then you explain how our own wealth furthers heaven.
ANNEXE
July 1, 2020
Ben Egerton is a poet and education lecturer from Wellington. He has recently completed a creative PhD in poetry and theology at the IIML at Victoria University of Wellington, where he held the Claude McCarthy Fellowship. Ben's poems have been published in the UK, the US, Australia and at home in New Zealand.
