Claire Gradidge
Domain Field
Is this what it is?
A grey stone hall and a flash of silver
crown of thorns and bones awry
nothing but how the light
tricks us?
Can it be that these shapes
not shadows, the obverse
these shapes in sunlight
child, man, woman
with a belly full of baby
alien, claw toed like chicken
can reach out, hide in the shadows
hide in the bright
straw stacks
steel welded, tiny pools like tears at
the joints
filling the spaces line to line
networked in light.
How did he do it
choosing steel over bronze
square and not round, not matt,
not black
nuclear thistledown
man as a tree
an explosion of chaff
fossilised in air.
I want to hear if they sing
if they hum in moonlight, in starlight
in the dark. If this is a man
bones and stones and lies
if this is reality
is this what it really is?
A way of looking
grey stone and steel
a moment of light.
A grey stone hall and a flash of silver
crown of thorns and bones awry
nothing but how the light
tricks us?
Can it be that these shapes
not shadows, the obverse
these shapes in sunlight
child, man, woman
with a belly full of baby
alien, claw toed like chicken
can reach out, hide in the shadows
hide in the bright
straw stacks
steel welded, tiny pools like tears at
the joints
filling the spaces line to line
networked in light.
How did he do it
choosing steel over bronze
square and not round, not matt,
not black
nuclear thistledown
man as a tree
an explosion of chaff
fossilised in air.
I want to hear if they sing
if they hum in moonlight, in starlight
in the dark. If this is a man
bones and stones and lies
if this is reality
is this what it really is?
A way of looking
grey stone and steel
a moment of light.
Page(s) 36
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