Hard Mast Deck
“looks as if the horizon’s been multiplied”
What multiplied the poets’ horizon?
What took them both together far beyond
Mere reality? What was the mizen
Driving them past the little bourgeois pond
That they had lived in till they crashed against
Each other’s body, poetry and soul?
Was it the alcohol and drugs condensed
By sex—or love? Perhaps it was the whole.
Except that Rimbaud didn’t understand
What love is, or at least he didn’t feel
It for his suitor. Forced to show his hand,
The boy discovered a queenless deal.
He couldn’t bring his coal heart to behave.
His hand could only show a jack or knave.
