JONATHAN WILLIAMS

"The Wreck on the A-222 in Ravensbourne Valley"

____________________

There are more things to love

than we would dare to hope for.

–Richard of St. Victor

where the car hit him, fireweed sprang with

blossoms of fennel

and umbels

of dill fell

through the spokes of a wheel

on Whistun holiday to the sun, Denton

Welch spun a web in his crushed cycle,

sat in the seat, spine curled up like a spider–

and spied: “saw

the very drops of sweat glittering frostily

between the shouder blades”

of a lad

…on and on he spied and bled from the blades of his cycle

small as a spider,

hiding in the fireweed, getting

wet from the skins of many human suns aground

at the Kentish river near

Tunbridge Wells,

where the dill

lulls,

and all boys

spoil…