Grizzled on rocks and trees
a lukewarm green like a brand
of house-paint - a fad
long faded from the market; cladding
painted over, patios trained,
brought to order. A paint
that crackles with the heat,
peels and flakes with cold. Behaves
adversely in sunlight. A skin disorder,
a surface feint, epidermal quackery,
clustering about an area of wear:
elbow, knee, the code
lost by its creator.
A Place of Lichen
A Place of Lichen
By John Kinsella
Prairie Schooner, Vol. 79, No. 1 (Spring 2005), p. 29
Biography
John Kinsella is an Australian author of more than thirty works of poetry, fiction, drama, and literary criticism. His most recent book of poetry is Jam Tree Gully (Norton). He is the founding editor of the journal Salt, and is the international editor of The Kenyon Review. He has won many awards, including the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award for Poetry three times.