KOREA

Basements in the music-box
were eyelids of hapsburg metal
and hysterical windows
where ONDINE appeared.

Come quickly!

A leather dog is sewn in a cushion
ONDINE wets her handkerchief
blots with a blue magnet
misshapen pearls
a pig has swallowed the music-box.

Injections of phosphorus
dropped through a lost vein into korea
in that spare chemistry
the pearls are a filter of poisonous thread
she must skein.


LEE BALLENTINE

BASEMENTS IN THE MUSIC BOX
1986, 5.5x8.5, 32 pgs, $4.50, color-xerox cover. With primitive-surreal drawings by Jon Bailiff. The poems in this collection are luring 2-way mirrors. What you think you see surprises you. Editor of OceanView Press of California.