1
black on blue on white
every death is stencilled on a woman's form
in solid black the women bear bereavement
on their bodies men upon their sleeves
symbolised by armbands for perhaps a week
but black has no dominion in this stone
and water paradise where salt dries dazzlingly
clean as limewashed walls and cupolas
reflect the sea and sky and every
fishing-boat is painted jauntily
against the sombre tapered cypresses
the sepulchres are always marble white
2
licked by elongated
dark-tongued flames of cypresses
El Greco landscapes blaze inside the cranium