World Without End

I.

There is a horse wearing a serpent’s scales;
Ji Gong, Andrew the Fool,
A wandering janus head.
The red mane of that solar steed,
Four eyes behind the wool;
And for a stone upon that brand’s pommel
The periwinkle moon was set.
Job for his master won that bet;
Upon the horse’s back,
The silver silver Lady of the Lake,
Was swallowing the stars
Like a whale swallows krill,
Or the earth pumpkin seeds,
Human marsupial,
World without end inviolate.

But I am drunk beneath a sycamore
In the blue breast of our winter,
And so out of my hand does fall the pen.

II.

Elijah ate
The barley cake,
Cooked over excrement.

The Lady of the Lake
Holds a white branch of grapes,
World without end inviolate.

That horse looks like a peacock or a drake
Which pulls the crystal nautilus
That is her chariot.

III.

The Holy Grail
And a whole host of drunken men;
That draught was full of stars,
World without end.