They stood forgotten
backs against the wall
waiting to be hung –
seven pictures,
remnants, ephemera,
a pastiche from the attics
of his life.
When his office was repainted
(‘papyrus’ - years ago)
he relegated them to a corner,
promising resurrection
later.
After the reunion that refracted
fifty years from their first shackling
to a volcano's shadow,
he warmed to palimpsests
of paintings
on parchment walls.
He would begin with the mountain –
it wears a freezing-worker's white bonnet
and tussock apron...
though absent the feather of menace
that always plumed its crater.
Yes, the volcano would be first.
He knew now which memories
might recrudesce.
Yet another poem from my University of Iowa MOOC writing experience. Visit Tuesday Poem for for a great poem by Pascale Petit: Fauverie - Emmanuel.
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I'm really enjoying the Iowa MOOCs - thanks for putting me on to these, Keith. They are fabulous. So glad to see poems emerging from them here, too! Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks Catherine - glad you are liking it/them
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