The pomegranate – a poem by Mathew Lyons

The pomegranate


God directs your attention to the prison of the heart
its doorways gummed with impossibility

to the atom of a thought in which conjecture 
& punishment wrestle for advantage 

to great anguish locked in a small room
to a storm trapped under glass & burnt by its own lightning 

to great anguish but also the great wonders 
to the Perseids buzzing with light in the hive of the sky  

to pyramids pressed from the flesh of the desert 
to the breath of electricity caught in the ear of a conch shell 

to decades of prayer clustered in the fist of a pomegranate 
each more pierced with sweetness than the last

to the anguish of impossibility & wonder
the charge of it

Mathew Lyons is based in East London. His poems have appeared in Bad Lilies, The Interpreter’s House, Reliquiae and Under the Radar, among others.