XV. Charrette [de licenciements]

XV. Charrette [de licenciements]

Mixed at the source, the Moon surfaces from a pool of fallen wine—

At the ecliptic’s lowest point, the Sun square the Tropic of Capricorn’s constellation

Sagittarius; alternately pacing the hemispheres twice over—Such is the trail of Leviathan

From an Egyptian ewer charted by its Phoenician trade partner—An Erté

Serigraph shimmering in crimson columns—The “M” of the curtain set aflame

By the manuscript—Late March and early April, the 14th day of Nisan, with Pisces

Opposite the Sun, before the 5th procurator of Judea at ten, or noon, (the sixth hour)—Pisces,

The faintest asterism; tethered Venus and Eros from Typhon—Trimalchio tipped Falernum wine—

Chapter 30, Pilate drinks Cecubum, the color of blood, or monk’s robe gamboge—Flame-set

Spermaceti Melville manufactured before deserting whaling vessels—The constellated

Appendices and omissions of Vedic texts by Schopenhauer, the Atma poodles, or cordoned Leviathan—

Cassiopeia set to swing upside down on her throne—At liberty horse act of “W” of Erté’s

Alphabet suite; but for a judgment in the theater exiting the 12^th house of Pisces—One of Erté’s

Stage sets—Naked, or exposed for foreign currency in the ventilator shaft—The hung fish of Pisces,

With a broken goat horn of cornucopia, what Pluton holds, revealed in 14-inch teeth of Leviathan melvillei

Mounted in a bulkhead drained of oil—For a metal man on a plinth, his head inclined—Wine

Will make us less uncouth (1825)—Friedrich’s Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog (1818) banking flames

Of growth; and women, battered like overused proverbs, by an empty suit constellated

By the clanging of at least 20 phones—Born the 14^th day of Nisan, Maimonides’ transparent constellations
Of the Pentateuch into 14 branches—Woland’s fifth dimension of apartment 50 302B framing Erté’s
Tableaux, or Nabokov’s dull green, somehow combined with violet;  the grape clusters of chandeliers aflame

By neon tubes—The ballrooms Margarita had left behind sounded like the sea—Pisces

Of the blue wave, these golden fish, and a fish slap—14^th letter, nun, a “j” in Aramaic, a Leviathan

Retching Joshua, the son of Nun, and for a water snake sprayed from a primus stove—The vernal Circlet of Western Pisces, when wine

Grapes in tall espaliers spread short internodes, the equatorial Sun forces the pruned wine
Stems to bleed; raw eggs to stand on end—Schubert saved from the fire, Die Forelle (1817) constellating

Five variations of Schubart’s warning of fishermen—Or else, too late, you'll bleed, by then Leviathan

Shed its crooked back; the bronze Nile crocodile bound to the palm of defeated Actium—Erté’s

Sea-goat ascends a suicidal pyramid as Octavian, which is foretold by Theogenes—Nero’s flames

Disbursed Pax Romana, officially ending with the death of Augustus (14 A.D.)—In the windup of Piscean

Surrender, there is the Neva’s torrent of 1824, “The Bronze Horseman” (1833)—Pisces,
Not a conquered element, befits Peter’s canal engineer Abraham Petrovich—The wine

Of which country do you prefer at this time of day—Pelléas and Mélisande’s five inflamed

Acts screen a triangle from Woland’s cigarette case, in a drowned ring at noon—Constellating
Allemonde, Frieda’s forest burial, and returned blue-bordered pocket square to smother the child—A female Leviathan

Reserved for a banquet; another Queen Margot vacating the lazaretto opposite the Virgin during spring full moon tides Erté

Bathed, in his nineties—Piscean Spring Ball from Spaso (1935), where finches break their nets—Erté’s

Silver stippling of chicory rooted in wet felt—Osiris rent into 14 inflamed parts, with one constellated

Portion eaten by fish—Such is a fear of Pisces on the nadir, the 13^th card or apostle; a Moon of one life is 28 years, and the leviathan scuttling the darkness—