Matt Bright
Galileo’s Finger
He knew his friends would choke on it,
they would cry out in taverns, Jesus
Anton Jesus what were you
thinking? There’s an enlightenment
on, and rational men have no time
for relics! Guiseppe had been to China,
and never tired of reminding him about
idiots who looked at fingers.
He knew, though, the leathered
snap of its working free. The texture
of its corruption. He never quite
let go of the saints’ leavings, some aunt’s
pious grip on him and at eye level
the grimy glass, the bones with their
promise of healing. Why, after all
should reason not have its mysteries?
He knew also that Guiseppe and
his cronies crept into Santa Croce,
to look at the thing, telling themselves
it was a study of decay but reverence
had marked their bones with the same
depth as his own: they trembled
at the life left in it, how its base
plugged into the hand of history.
He knew, and would never say
that the gaudy cup and its inscription
cradled nothing much: the pointer,
the one that had traced heaven’s
mechanics had stuck fast. This
withered pole had meant nothing
to anyone. Still they came, following
its tip to the centre of the sky.
Page(s) 13
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