TRIPTYCH (VAN EYCK)

1.

The woman

with a child on her lap
sitting on rugs

what is she doing

there
in the middle

the day
might always be cold

March light

what is she doing
sitting with a child

on her lap

long drapes
behind

and rugs
like wings

or feathers
feathery rugs

alive in the cold

March light
flat as the moon

at dusk

the cold
rakes

blue plumes

into
traversing

signals
aside

and because
it can never be

early enough
she is always

sitting
aside

in wait.

2.

Mal, mal,
trivial thwart.

Stop this
glare, stop

goading the ill
into consequence,

the extra
bloom

unheralded
by day or by night.

Go off
into a woody scene

and take
the painted epilogue

with you.
Burn it for heat

and burn the
currency of emeralds

mistaken
for new life.

3.

If no time’s
not want

stay and
renovate

traced gloves
sweet digits

adhesives
bound for dispatch

and so cling
to the tiered ensemble

stupendous enrichment
during the spell and

start, start.

for Stacy