An Annual of the Dark Physics
By Norman Dubie
The Baltic Sea froze in 1307. Birds flew north
From the Mediterranean in early January.
There were meteor storms throughout Europe.
On the first day of Lent
Two children took their own lives:
Their bodies
Were sewn into goatskins
And were dragged by the hangman’s horse
The three miles down to the sea.
They were given a simple grave in the sand.
The following Sunday, Meister Eckhart
Shouted that a secret word
Had been spoken to him. He preached
That Mary Magdalene
Sought a dead man in the tomb
But, in her confusion, found
Only two angels laughing. . .
This was a consequence of her purity
And her all too human grief.
The Baltic Sea
Also froze in 1303—
Nothing happened that was worthy of poetry.
Copyright Credit: Norman Dubie, “An Annual of the Dark Physics” from The Mercy Seat: Collected & New Poems 1967-2001 (Copper Canyon Press, 2001). www.coppercanyonpress.org
Source: The Mercy Seat: Collected & New Poems 1967-2001 (Copper Canyon Press, 2001)