Elsie Visits the Golden Man
In the Beauchamp Chapel,
Elsie’s blue eyes rove the painted
ceiling. She sees angels bending,
pale faces lowered to the mystery
she doesn’t know or care about.
She stares at marble tombs
holding the bones of dangerous
men; uncomprehending all the weight
of history: this one, the favourite
of a queen, threw his sad burden of a wife
downstairs; and here she lies, to ambush
him in death; her ruff primped out in lacy stone.
Elsie wonders why a child lies
dead. ‘Poor little boy’, the “Noble Impe”,
as yet unbreeched, the same age
as her older sister, left his parents
without an heir, to mourn their lives away.
She soon forgets, sees a lion
with two tails, and bears, bears
everywhere. A deacon takes her hand
and shows her all forty-eight of them.
Elsie likes the clatter of her shoes,
the echo of her voice in airy height.
She doesn’t care what made this place
so splendid; likes its surfaces, its blues
and reds, its griffon and its swan’s head
helmet; strokes the golden feathers.
Lifted up, at last, she sees this gorgeous
little man, no bigger than a boy;
this golden knight, his richly glinting
armour, his mailed hands raised
in prayer; this kingmaker, this cold,
gold face; these cropped gilt curls;
this treasured statue of the man
who burnt a saint. And Elsie’s had
enough, and wants the swings.
Page(s) 38
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