FIGURES

FIGURES

figures
were fashioned

no sooner so
than they produced
brutal beauty

an angular ballet across
a square battlefield

the mind stretched to its limit
to master
     have complete power over

surrogate for war itself
and yet still the shock
and
     sharp self-
recognition
            in defeat

figures were fashioned

you could spend a lifetime
exploring, imagining

that entire
little universe that
accrues to them