The Fabulist (edit 3)

[Wjames]

Poem for Philip

The fabulist wears a mask,
laughs easily, but his eyes
tell you he’s not joking. I was going to say "are" would be more concise than "tell you he's" and it is, but "tell you he's" is probably better because there's more of a picture of enjoying someone's company for a while, only to look in their eyes and see something else.

When the fix is in, look
beyond the tricks of his eyes 
where lunacy and rhyme 
lay the suicides in a row. I like that lunacy and rhyme could be either beyond the tricks of his eyes, or the tricks off his eyes could be where lunacy and rhyme lay the suicides in a row (or both).

Between the fabulist’s wrist 
and his unspoken name 
worlds are made and unmade
across fields of unready nerves
forming cities in your brain. I am picturing someone's name at the top (or bottom) of a page, and them writing and re-writing something (probably a lettter based on the synopsis I read). The last two lines are nice, this writing is where lunacy and rhyme lay the suicides in a row above?

Philip is Philip Casey? I was doing some googling, and I read his poem Daily Bread - it was very good, I hadn't heard of him before. My thoughts are those of someone unfamiliar with his work, outside of also seeing he wrote a novel called The Fabulists and reading a synopsis.