And when Sandover

“And when Sandover
began emerging from
our Ouija board it was
perhaps to be expected
that…”—James Merrill,
“Jung Love,” Collected Prose

Rain forest Indians—
Stripped him bare and
Conferred around his nude
Sleeping body, talking like
Eighteenth-century surgeons.

The People of the Mirage—
Blessed him & the Lady of the
Hills rocked him to sleep wound
Up in her long, black, silky hair,
Transported to a new continent.

Such exotic topographies—
And hallucinatory encounters
Accidentally sweep him off to
Confront the Old Man in the Sea,
Captain of the Flying Dutchman.

The amazed crew sight him—
A naked boy asleep on a raft
That’s the fairytale story of
W.H. Hudson’s A Little Boy Lost,
Images staged by de Chirico.

A boy-shaped tower—
Of water and spray, and white
Froth and brown seaweed,
Long ago dictating the protean
Aspect of Merrill’s angels.