Leaving & Returning Under the Old Mandate of Achievement

What power remains in the image of
the Conquistador (?)
In his pose atop the field –
freshly won, he stands astride –
in his marvelous campaigns
on further citadels and tides,
the ripples of his stratagems
through distant days and minds?


How glum, the meager picture of
the era’s meanest pen (!)
Not in all his struggle
to call forth a sounding word,
not in matrimonial care
to clean his pride of burrs –
but in that good wife’s absence
in his visions of grandeur!


Burning passion: matches struck
and fanned by blue desire;
elder spirits come and stand
to watch and tend the fire.