pg 21 of 26

William B. Robison

Pasche

The vernal equinox descends
like a flatulent hen in the wake of carnival
upon a clutch of vivid eggs

awaiting the break in the seasonal fast
entombed in a covered cornucopia
and in the aftermath of leonine gales

violent perturbation of the icy atmosphere
less zealous zephyrs riffle the interstices
rustling softly cellophane straw strands

probing the shadowed ovoid vertices
as a wayward finger in a ticklish armpit
giggling sudden surprising comedy

one brittle shell broken cracks leech color
but are deftly repaired with oviduct tape
synthetic fibers rosined with mucilage

rendered from the flesh of pet shop ducklings
down dispersed in a week or two
by gentle breezes bearing lamb's wool

Meanwhile in the grass the chosen hare
garbed in purple rabbiteen velvet
whiskers bunched in benign bemusement

wonders warily what is my role here
nostrils twitch sensing an essence
March wind bears the scent of Frankincense

William B. (Bill) Robison (PhD, LSU) is Head of the Department of History and Political Science and a Professor of History at Southeastern Louisiana University, specializing in Tudor- Stuart England. He is co-author (with Anna Sue Parrill) of The Tudors in Film and Television (forthcoming), co-editor of Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England 1272-1483 and Historical Dictionary of Stuart England 1603-1689, and author of essays in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, as well as articles and reviews in a number of journals. He also is a musician and a maker of short films. Recently he has published poems in Asinine Poetry, decomP magazinE, On Spec, and Paddlefish. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife Bibbet, daughters Zoe and Molly, and a sizeable horde of cats and dogs.

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