‘A Hierarchy of Halls’ by C. Murray

This is not a universe,
it is a garden. Trees,
 
a hierarchy of halls,
halls, a universe to sing.
 
Follow wren’s sound
into the lowest corridors.
 
There, a huge gap, fox
-made,
is where blackbirds sing.
 
Stone-plateaued, daisy garlanded
ground-held.

---

Early summer occurs
in a calamity of falling
young,
 
petals, birds, the
bright souls of birds.
 
A small dead bird
is at my feet,
tree looms
over this soul-ossuary
 
dignifying the small
body with her dark needles,
 
bird-map-lost,
obliterate–

 

A Hierarchy of Halls  ©  C. Murray (Smithereens Press, 2018)

Thanks to Ken Keating of Smithereens Press for publishing A Hierarchy of Halls. Cover art by Salma Ahmad Caller. Streaming options for A Hierarchy of Halls at The Internet Archive