FROM A PRIORY.

If the tongue is tied
          to the ear-drum
you'll miss all the rumours
but pick up repercussions:
          the shook & the rattled.

If the veil is rented
          out from top
to bottom you'll find salvation
's priced itself out of the market:
          indulgence going soft.

Cataracts occlude retinal travel,
          make statuesque shadows
out of refractory substance:
the infrastructure registers
          zero on the Richter.

The definition of disaster
          is under review
by the Insurance Brokers
of New Europa. Old bull
          on a 12-tone scale.

Perspicacity's a good glaze
          for earthenware
or brimming wine glass:
known to hearten, while a Curia
          is no remedy.

In a cave behind a veil
          the cataract
is tantamount to a cataleptic
rush of ululating matter:
          a failed Wasserman.

A Mantoux neither cures nor
          causes fluctuations
in consumption. Other forces
prevail, eg, the common wolf:
          the rest is palliative.