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Poem
by Kay Divant


Caffelinas for the efternoon of our hazys (Cafè of Butterflies)

We see through the plate glass in which we also see ourselves
the mannequins in colours of asphaltum and iron, blotched
with yellow and gold, edged in sable. We see at the base
where an anus would be, the metal pins inserted in the rigid crustum.
Whereas we are rampant with soft skins and skeletons
of light bones, crisped by wind. We hail and differ!

Leaning over vials of our favoured distillates (vapours stirring
the air of harsh whispers Chez l'Alchimiste) we make our selections.
Our bodies are with us relaxing on chair-point as we hear them spoken
in terms of force and reconstruction. From their latent positions
couchant they watch for cracks in the facades, listen
to the skull pans emptying bluish in the culverts beyond.(1)

A ‘moment blonde’ with hands blurred down at them
which cast our blood, oh Lord, in stiffness too
our minds flit watchfully, and lip to lip
as on their One day swarms of Monarchs volant,
from bloom to bloom, with glasses of amontillado (2)
lift and sip the cuprous mutagen. (3)

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Colors:
(1) As in the color blue -- bluish, blush gush, blues, the music, the mood, but also anticipatory of butterflies (the ‘blues’ of the lycaenidae family).

(2) Amontillado for its associations with Poe, aura of the twisting mind and motives that go unspoken. But primarily for its meaning ‘montilla-like’ as in the process of making sherry – first maturing under a layer of flor (yeast cells), and then cycled through the Solera system where older casks are refilled with younger wine -- as the recycling of human mannequins in the alchemical cafe. As they age, the amontillado sherries lose their covering of flor. The resulting exposure to air turns them a darker amber.

(3) Copper...shimmering...the most seaworthy of metals, used in ship building, in alchemical tradition associated with Venus, in its bivalent form is used for etching, and has also been the instrumental chemical for unlocking a recent experimental discovery about the origin of life on the sea floor by Japanese scientists; cuprous, the monovalent form, has been substituted.