Sestina for Disinheritance

By LP Patterson

photo by Alev Takil on Pexels

The world has moved on from its earring,  

from its bells, far away silver and gold   

that impose, intractably, this burn  

in sunlight, the hissing sound and mettle.

The world has moved on as a traveler   

that reaches the deepest recesses of its mark.  

Disinherit the world, disinherit the mark

of your crystal knife fashioned in an earring.

Look at me in my half lamplight, traveler,

that reaches past you to the burned wall’s gold.

I falsify this record in this name, your mettle

sounding the depths of its scars and burn.

And the untied winds that we direct to burn

the scarred gauze patches on your red mark

by dint of a scratch on your mettle,

with hooked talons of a crystal earring,

these show the truth blazoned in the hilt’s gold:

the world is not all, it is not all, traveler,

it’s not the heart torn out of its kite, traveler,

that dazed organ you let fly into the sky’s burn,

trailed by pennons and stolen ropes of gold.

That world has passed behind the veiled mark

and it’s small as mercy, a glint on an earring,

stowed by your oiled hair, this tool of your mettle.

And we know it’s to this fruit you direct your mettle,

don’t we? That the gauze I gave you made you a traveler?

True. The gated wall’s gold bled tears that you wore for an earring.

And as scars form beneath you, you let yourself burn,

and the stomach, and the liver you read for a mark

under sleep, where your tongue drips in silver and gold.

Where do you think you can hide us and our painted gold?

From what deceptive light can you share the image of your mettle?

I lock us both here at the door with a word and a mark,

and wait for the flood to rise, the great traveler.

As I hold us to the light of a candle’s burn,

we grow small and smaller still, diminished by your earring.

We grow until we can carry the world with the mettle of a traveler.

We carry the world as the gold sky carries its burn,

and in the diminishing light you fashion your earring.

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