Poetry :: Choler by Bruce Bond

Excerpted from “Choler” by Bruce Bond from the Spring 2018 issue of Zone 3:

The long depressive curtain, the castle
stone limned in green, the thin insistent

incursions of rain that scarify the mortar,
what are they if not a promissory note,

the slung burden and authoritative bell
of dreams we take, in dreams, for dead.

The yellow eye wakes, and death’s antagonist—
let us call him scientist, father, creator, god—

draws back in shame and horror from his one
creation. He sees in him a miracle confusion,

drenched in the bile that is our birthright,
and says, in silence, hell. What did I expect.

Cover art “Dimming Superstition” collage on a book cover by Hollie Chastain.