Felix Purat’s most recent poem to appear here was “Stopover in Leszno” (June 2017).
Baudelaire’s Ornate Craft in the Time of Desolation
By Felix Purat
Baudelaire decorates his craft ornately,
Churches of 19th century French that
Blossom in gardens of Cosmas and Damian,
Ironic notions of that poetically legal sinner indeed.
Executors of beauties so far in the flesh
With proles of the present so keen to forget;
Hanging Heads of Babylon, Californian drought:
Ruins that will shake and crumble when caressed
By antique Assyrian khamsins in Nimrud;
Distanced a lot from Bavarian Wieskirches,
Headed lions soar with their proto-Angelic wings, devoted beasts
Of Ashurbanipal’s gods ascend into the exosphere
A form of self-expulsion, finally free from the Terra
That no longer wished to do them any favors;
An omniscient present for a fouling future,
The chapels of Charles Baudelaire, deserted.
