Litany

Mathias Svalina


Litany
Mathias Svalina
Shade:          new buildings require fresh blood, or, with reservations, 
a boy’s shadow trapped in the foundation.

Shade:          by candlelight the solid outline of the body flickers,
splinters into a wavering spirit.

History:         1144; a nun sees a dead boy in the woods near Norwich
& continues walking, then a traveller sees him & townspeople bury the 
boy in the woods.

History:         a week later his family visits the grave, disinters the 
body, presumably cries, & reburies him in the same spot.

History:         then a month later his father accuses local Jews of cruci-
fying the boy. The rotting body is translated to a monks’ cemetery 
near the newly built cathedral & becomes a pilgrimage destination.

Sun:             even your fingertip has the power to blot the sun.

Lincoln:         in this city one can see no shadows at noon.

History:         a child in blue pants tries to bury his shadow with white 
gravel from the garden path.

Shade:          even now my shadow waits for the light, for the hot 
touch of a scabbed wound.

Sun:              try not to step on your shadow on the sidewalk.

Warning:       Gravediggers! Tie your shadows to your waists lest they 
fall into an open grave & become rebellious & tired of ignominy.

History:         there was a crucifixion fetish: boys & girls piercing their 
hands & feet in filthy ecstasy.

Shade:          not only the building but the shadow of the building.

Lincoln:         1255; Lincoln townspeople accuse a Jew of killing a boy 
in ritual. Under torture the Jew admits to a pan-European Jewish con-
spiracy of blood leaking through the shadows.

History:         noonday sun casting swinging shadows of 19 hung 
men.

Lincoln:         priests buried the boy’s body in the newly constructed
cathedral.

Shade:           the boy’s shadow in the foundation protects the new 
building from ghosts & shades.