Dunwich and Other Cities| Artur Nowrot

(Artwork by Carrion House)

one conquered

through gentle persistence

of the water washing its feet

 

the others

like Andromeda

bound on their shores by the simple chain

of cause and effect

waiting for their fate

to rise

past their knees their waists

their throats

 

not so grand

in the grand scheme of things

that they couldn’t be offered

 

to propitiate

(as once we offered

to the dark deities of Thames

the seeds of civilisation:

our ships our coins

our knives)

for oil and for plastic

coiling in the stomachs of birds

from which the augurs would read

the end

 

to be preserved

by the procession of nereids

their lips chapped by salt

so that there remains

when the green covers

our parched skulls

the deep tolling

of underwater bells

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

Artur Nowrot lives in Cracow, in the south of Poland, where he dreams of the sea. He writes poetry and prose, and contributed as a translator to Widma: A Journal of Polish and American Verse. Dunwich and Other Cities is his first work published in English. You can find him on Twitter @joyfulrivers.