baroque oceanography

“After 1682 & the King’s final move to Versailles, indoor festivities supplanted those that took place outdoors, for the gardens were considered too beautiful to risk damage by temporous installations or crowds of people.” Eric Baratay & Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier, Zoo: A History of Zoological Gardens in the West, trans. Oliver Webb (Reaktion Books, 2002), chapter 3 ‘Baroque Scenography’


chloroform. spellcheck. hairglass.
allnight [the] feverish

medicine on a ship
wander through low

wrecked clouds
limbs hollow

seepage wine
destroying hourly

tournament.
lovemaking

curious incuriou
s animals mute

soprano cutting
her toes off.


•


bed in [a] corner.
voice hushed lowerthan.

pictorial messenger.
cut through leafage.

escape route.
unhuman illusion.

pincushion of thumbs.
mad.

scene.
on old lp.

dead sop.
rano. thenceforth

attached tapers to.
tailfeathers of sungbirds