7

What messages did he transcribe
between photograph and word
to mark his reading?

His address:
curling gothic script
under a photograph: Grace Jones
shin raised to a face
with a view to a kill

A circle around a weapon:
Scaramanga's golden pistol,
disguised as a cigarette lighter
pressed to Andrea's cheek,
a life in film:
the time to smoke a cigarette

A Grecian spiral, square cornered:
Bond poised to tackle
a midget wrestler in a tuxedo.
Mary Goodnight
wrapped modestly in sheets.

He cut an X into the page
where Jill Masterson's pores
suffocate, painted gold.
Background to the page: Bond's
bleeding pistol barrel,
rifling like a fossilized mollusc,
source for the Minister's Grecian spiral