Inspired by
Musee des Beaux Arts by
W.H. Auden:
Quite cold already, as if he were
cast,
The child sank through barren sky
Like an anchor.
The bobbing ship, quietly set adrift,
Abandoned its damp nets to marvel
At the fall:
What parody of
sacred birth
Now plummeted towards mother earth?
The melted tumult of wax and feathers
Must have appeared divine in hue
To slackjawed sailors,
But no
foamy triumph rising through sea
Nor
nymph-led rescue awaited these wings
For final uplifting.
--December 2000