AFTER ANOINT
ING THE STRETCHED CLOTH
WITH PIGMENT
AND OIL,
I SEE A
FACE RISE FROM
THE MILKY FROTH:
LORD HAVE
MER
CY.
CHRIST
HAVE MER
CY.
ANOTHER SHROUD,
THIS HIEROGLYPH,
GOD THE FATH
ER ENTRUSTS
TO ME. MY
FATHER SMILES
DOWN IN DEATH:
LORD HAVE
MER
CY.
CHRIST
HAVE MER
CY.
UPON PALE HORS
ES, STRIDE FOR STRIDE,
THEY WILL MAKE
FOR THE HO
LY SEE, AND
THROW EVERY
GRAVESTONE ASIDE:
LORD HAVE
MER
CY.
CHRIST
HAVE MER
CY.
RESURRECTION
IS EXPENSIVE,
AND REQUI
RES A TREA
SURY. I
KEEP THE COFF
ERS RELATIVE.
LORD HAVE
MER
CY.
CHRIST
HAVE MER
CY
THE ANGELS ON
MY BANKNOTES HARK
A CONSE
CRATED CUR
RENCY: CEN
TUPLON AND
QUADUPLON MARKS:
LORD HAVE
MER
CY.
CHRIST
HAVE MER
CY
I WILL NOT BE
AT BELLEVUE LONG;
WILHEIM WILL
SET HIS CON
SORT FREE. THEN
I WILL MAKE
MY PRAISE IN SONG:
LORD HAVE
MER
CY.
CHRIST
HAVE MER
CY.
ELSE BLANKENHORN
Born in 1873. Institutionalized in 1889 at Bellevue. Died in Konstanz in 1920 or 1921.
William Bonfiglio’s poetry has been awarded a Pearl Hogrefe Grant in Creative Writing Recognition Award, the Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Salt Hill Journal, New Letters, and elsewhere.