Nancy Dunlop

VARIATIONS ON A DOCTRINE OF LOVE

1.

To make less warm
To make less ardent
To become less warm
To become calm

To make resplendent
To throw as from a great height
To condense and fall as rain or snow
To condense and fall
To be chemically separated
To fall headlong

To catch fish in a net
To gut or clean fish
 

2.

A cool blouse
A piece of parchment
A period of decline following growth and glory
A large house
A large heart

Great sorrow
Great ocean liner
 

3.

The event of the daily disappearance of the sun
The decline or final phase
The wattle of a bird
The underside of a mushroom
Dissolved mineral content
 

4.

Designating blue and green
Worn over loins and sometimes thighs
Like amber, because amber produces sparks
Marked by effortless grace

As rain or snow
Moving heedlessly
Rare and unrestrained
 

5.

Designating wind
Yielding to pressure
Easily touched
Soft in the head
As certain consonants
Of fishes, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates

Every jack must have his gill
 

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