The hard-polish, bank-floor
sheen of horse chestnuts
fall after fall showered us
with naval mines
fertile in the gloom,
each erotic as a Madonna
or the rosary beads of nuns.
My shrine lay deep in the closet
as the trees refused their vintage,
leaves baked in winter’s air.
In the dawn of March,
I opened that armory
to a spring moldy with verdigris.
Horse Chestnuts
William Logan
William Logan’s most recent book of poetry is Rift of Light (2017), and his most recent book of criticism is Broken Ground: Poetry and the Demon of History (2021).