Catherine Hales

audition

the idea is to return to a mythological origin

& so complete this circuitous arrangement

sans plot sans characters sans everything

leaving her teeth bared bones gleaming

in tents various strewn across the plain

the magnesium arc of glare lights revealing

inscriptions left by vanished legislation & nearly

obliterated by a wash of acid soporific

holograms reciprocating statutory denials

folding into resistant strategies plainly the onus

is on the victim to prove the crime she emerged

from the burning car & walked down the hill

“like a broken doll” but a stand-in did that scene

who’d understudied the part for just such an

eventuality persistent rumours stretching out

into feudal trajectories from time to time

the non plus ultra of the anodyne heavily

made up to hide the paleness of her face

collision

opposing exigencies burdened with proximity

the particularity of the prime is lost on those

who see parody in every twitch of a facial muscle

elixir of a fading susceptibility veiled by heavy

rain a sacked city on a promontory

various navies in attendance listed meticulously

by name number & origin oh yes this is where

it all began & who can gainsay making a killing

on the substantial mineral deposits in the hills

border tightening something to break

the bonds of body on smelling sweetly of anything

but what it is operating under the pretext of an

expense account the enormity of what had just

happened gradually became apparent