Okjökull Elegy

(Everett Shinn; "The Clown (No Laughs)" via)

Ofrenda.

1.
The noontide’s last GLEAM
Our doom no longer LENTO
With these songs ENDOW

Who will be left to ATONE,
Squamomandibular-MOWED?

2.
Maintenance of PACTS
In a cryptid AGORA
One makes a COVEN

Checking out early a TREND
To die amid painted SANDS

3.
The raptor’s ETHOS
Flickering shadows in TWILL
Payback is HINDU

A named battle, as of OLDEN;
Fetched back over a saddle SLUNG

4.
Tree too thin to CLIMB
Acme of capture LUNAR
Help desk INDIA
Says. Tsourris in my e-MAILS
Peals from the treetops * skirl BRASH

5.
Outrageous Wyrd-DARTS
Dodging * the reign of ADHOC

Traik like a RHINO
Through ev’ry wry or TONAL
Cantata of the sky-SCOLD

6.
Hardest of nesh TASKS
Gathers punishment ADHOC
On the point blank SHORE

A beast, like the KORAN
From the old pile a strange SCENT

7.
Sev’ral dire GASES
Ago * went where people AREN’T
Slept in a SEWER
Tunnel * shotgun ENEMA
Burning up the final STRAW

8.
Coven short one WITCH
Mink compound in IDAHO
Schnoz like a TAPIR

Down are all the carrot CHIPS
Hearing lines from eBooks HORSE

9.
Gift from Cracker JACKS
This poem is * beast ARENA
Judged by some CELEB
I never heard of * crow’s KNELL
Svelte * axeman trimmed with SABLE

10.
Keep painting those BALES
Morning, noon * secret AGENT
Caspar * vote LEVER
Doubles as an ENEMA
Of glitz * cat’s paw slaps the STRAY

11.
Gantry for a SMASH
Canned milk sweetened with MAPLE
August rain; APRIL

Triangular by the SLICE
The part that isn’t HELEN

12.
Bent beside our DESKS
Survival forlorn EXERT
Cold war SEPIA

Oil from the prey of whales KRILL
Lest this admonishment STALE

13.
Inscrutable GLASS
Is this shit even LEGAL
Rabbit less AGILE

No surgery brain SALAD
Uphill gymkhana of SLEDS

14.
Flung by sky LASSO
Without even ALOHA

Eke my best SODAS

Vaster than our desert SHARE
The future’s naff OASES

15.
End in sordor CASED
Symphony of APNEA
The sky’s subfusc SNARL

Blower’s whistle so EERIE
Over turned-to-charcoal DALES

16.
Gabriel VAPID
On pilgrimage AMINO
Dating a PINUP

To like abjections INURE
Other dwarves call me DOPEY

17.
Our Hindenberg BLIMP
Makes blarney landfall LUNAR

Stay for the INTRO
That’s made of polychrome MARLS
Culminates in deathless PROSE

18.
They call this MUSIC
I call it gears of ULTRA

To the stars boot-STRAP
The planet itself IRATE

Watch our superhero CAPES

19.
Clap- style –back DOGGY
Stans of the first red OCHRE
On old texts be GHOUL

Though I speak with tongue of GRUEL
It’s the ricochet that YELLS

20.
My all-quisling STAFF
Knows a paradox or THREE
Preferred ARENA

Irony from mishap FENDS
Nil ‘midst Barmecidal FEAST

21.
The tale in the TWIST
River-returns to the WHOLE
All the IOTAS
Mansion built on a coast SLANT

To be asked makes you TESTY

22.
Too long, too MUGGY...

The wisdom of UTERI,
Versus the GENIE
That resides in the yard GRILL

All our fool failures to YIELD

23.
Watching the WISPS
Rise * ice two ways IONIC

Service with a SNEER

No-Man’s-Land the PIETÁ
Answer written on a SCRAP

24.
Tournament of WASPS
All my pores on red ALERT

Fadeless SEPIA
Seeks the condition PRIOR

Measured in a dead-eyed STARE

25.
Battlefield TAPAS
Acetone’s dire AROMA
Affordance, POSIT

Color change phenyl AMINE
Curiosity SATED

26.
Castle made of KARST
Into the sea ALOHA
Hum of the ROTOR

In foreign furrows it SHONE
All the enmity of TARES

27.
If this is a WASTE
Say tarriance ALOHA
Skeleton SOWER

Sluggardly incipit THESE
Mackerel-sky’d & flop-EARED

28.
Combustion TACIT
In the derby to ATONE

Set parallel COUPS

Same out if garbage INPUT
The medium is TESTY

29.
Neotene LARVA
Slestered with caustic ALOES
As the drizzle ROARS

All we know is plunge & VERGE
Our will a hostile ASSET

30.
Cut him if he STAND

Pristine copy of TABOO

Murderous ABBOT

Orchestra in view a NOOSE
With dummy * else I’d DOTED

31.
Pic of homestead FIRTH
Lava beds in IDAHO
Crystal RADIO
Tremor in the ether * THICK
Darkness & the walls have HOOKS

32.
Monument of WASTE
Monkey’s extreme ALOHA
Six seventy SONES

Say I am not one of THESE
Not that defense EASES

33.
Pale glow of ARGON
Dance on lost ice * white with ROUGE
Somewhere beyond GUILE

Scryer has never OGLED
A more puzzling knot of NEEDS

34.
Ant colony WHIST
Forms ages & ages HENCE
Knotting with INCAS

The evidence plenty SCANT
If you want to be TESTY

35.
The smell of old BRASS
Invades my nascent REMAP
Solitude AMPLE
In the gunswept night * SALSA
Drifts through a vignette of SPEAR

36.
Under the RADAR
Clear yellow of AGAVE
Rubicon one DARES
Final melting not AVERT
Stacks of books one’s head RESTS

37.
Color a net near-loco.

"Hello. I have been to hell and back and hell and back and hell and back."