Eumenides
Behind the curtains in the palace drawing room
concealed in swirls of drapery they assume
the body's contours; even when
shaken out to air they'll plot
the king my father's death,
their infinite presence glimpsed as three
faces in a gilt mirror before the glass shivered
leaving me with a small
wound that will never heal:
always just out of reach, the suppressed image
recurs, always stands behind me until
I look round stealthily
trying to catch them off guard,
but they've gone.
But the course of events
moves one degree off true, for the fatal error
infiltrates the computer, electronics
short-circuit, the airliner plunges to earth
in an incandescent spiral. Safe arrival
is never assured, one is looking over one's shoulder
into shuddering distances, listening for voices
carried away on the wind. If one could see their faces,
they would be those of friends, laughing.
Page(s) 44
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