from unpublished ms. "Radiation Chimaeras"

MAADONNA-BAHNOFF

could not grasp, n.

the agonies

in proportion as faith grew / dim the light
left the torn lung into the blood / vessel of the brain
the wide world dreaming on things to come

commanding figures in a vast her red
and varied world mantle

into mysteries of the dynamo
aflame with their // parted lips told

victims of an overwhelming
things not given man to utter
pre-occupied with the stupendous

ransom / race / fallen
mastered / enriched

the figures / helpless / humanity
conceals / recalls sculpture

the diver, weary might surface

sudden grief pierced us on windless days

apart from the bleak commonplace
removed painlessly by working

landscape in a distance
color / faltering

kneelers looking / down all the time

the whole figure exhales
towards surrender / ecstatic

a note of rapturous anguish runs through them