The Anathemata
Keel, Ram, Stauros (continued)
The old padrone
the ancient staggerer
the vine-juice skipper.
What little’s left
in the heel of his calix
asperging the free-board
to mingle the dead of the wake.
Pious, eld, bright-eyed
marinus.
Diocesan of us.
In the deeps of the drink
his precious dregs
laid up to the gods.
Libation darks her sea.a
He would berth us
to schedule.
***
comments
The skipper here takes on aspects of the Redeemer. ‘calix’, a cup, is the usual Latin word for the chalice containing the wine at the Eucharist. Diocesan is not used in the modern sense of bishop, but in its original sense of one who manages, guides, safeguards.