THE OLDE SHOP

In Brisbane’s China-town 

and SW1, Jermyn Street,

 in Khartoum’s sprawling Omdurman 

and the Welsh hinterland’s

erstwhile apothecaries:

all those shelves of jars, potions and remedies

 of preserved seed and fruit,

 zi wan, tian men dong, shan za, wu yao -

all that the soil sprouts, biology breeds and plants bequeath r

eplaced by pound, charity and corner shops, cafes, parking lots,

 storage units, bakeries and bus shelters.

Whereas

every kind of enzyme, element, tuber, rhizome, bulb, fungi or algae 

dreamt up by world-wide “wort-cunning”

of sages, wise women and witches,

which alchemist applied 

- to transmute: putrify, heat up

 calcinate, congeal, ferment, distill, digest, filter. 

Dissolve and coagulate.

Combustibility, fusibility, volatility.

Hermetic and Taoist principle 

and number 7.

Personas, shadows and transcendence -

nigredo, albedo to divine reunion.

Individuation of matter, body, soul.

Duality, paradox and ambiguity,

with the elements of stars -

planets, timings, symbolism,

overlapping with the shapes, angles and patterns of sacred geometry.

The olden ways, as contemporary as now:

the Past becomes the Future,

quoth the Arcadian gods of yore,

encapsulating as well as unfolding

the hard graces of Destiny.