Christopher James
The Only Penny Farthing in Iceland
The only Penny Farthing in Iceland
was found in the hold of the trawlership Silfur Tungl
which means ‘silver moon’
embedded in a hoard of herring and crushed ice.
When they hoisted it into the blue sky
it was as if it had been dipped in diamonds.
Digging deeper, they found its owner
frozen into the same bowler hat and pleasant aspect
he had chosen that morning in Liverpool,
before pedalling down to the waterfront to take in some air.
As they lowered him down his moustache cracked in two;
a boy mistook his frosted monocle for a ten krōnur piece.
Reunited with his bicycle on the dockside,
the man resembled a newly commissioned statue,
still slightly bent at the knee and stiff as cardboard,
an offi cial gift perhaps, from a neighbouring state:
their Norwegian Christmas tree or gift of Liberty,
a gleaming pioneer perched aloft the industrial age.
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