Holy Child Sonnet
(after John Donne)
You-to-be, viceroy — unreason of —
My knocked-up open addiction to
Your battering breath, your sieged inhabitation
Of — my little emperor — port I am.
Beloved, host I you as self-possession:
Belaboring, be mine; as vise-like I you dis-
Entwine. Famished amnion love canals
Our truce: Caesarean-sacked — citadel —
I, usurped — delivered of — disgorge you,
Captive you plunder my body’s booty.
Divorce me unimprisoned birth me!
Deliver me from to your stranger thralldom!
Abandoned ship, disembark I you sovereign
Cargo. Chaste-ravished I your utter Subject.
[in 1913: A Journal of Forms, Issue #3]