PART IV
THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED

i

Wings stir the sunlit dust
of the cathedral in which
the Past is buried
to its chin in marble.

STAN RICE
from
“Poem on Crawling into Bed: Bitterness”
Body of Work (1983)

ii

In the glazed greenery of hedge,
and ivy, and inedible strawberries
the lilies are white; remote; extreme.
Would they were our guardians.
They are barbarians.

STAN RICE
from
“4’Greek Fragments”
Body of Work (1983)