The Pivotal Kingdom by Alice Fulton

The Pivotal Kingdom

by Alice Fulton

(published in her 1994 book, Powers of Congress, David R. Godine, Publisher)

A head capsized the wild mechanism of May

and a body followed, casting off

its muddy husk.

I gazed at him from the raised walkway

of the excavation site,

through dust the color of suntan.

I wanted to stroke a thing so warmly

smooth, a uniform khaki, on bended knee.

I wouldn’t mind touching hands

tensed round centuries

of hiatus in place of vanished weapons.

His motions tabled for ...