C. J. Allen
A Guided Tour of the Air Museum
Here is the yellow air of London
in the nineteenth century, smelling
of gin and orphans and axle-grease.
Over there is the bright blue air of Umbria
in the 1550s, loud with the thrap of pennants,
the clatter of lances.
And this is night air from beneath
the Brooklyn Bridge, grazed
with the silence of Hart Crane.
That row of jars contains the air
from several Georgian withdrawing rooms,
mostly exhaled in secret sighs
of lust and longing. Musky and dotted
with flies is the air that hung close
to the days and raiment of John the Baptist.
While the air Vermeer painted is clear
as light after a shower of rain
one otherwise flawless September morning.
Remarkably alike are the little boost
of air that ruffled Napoleon’s kiss-curl
at Waterloo and the final E flat
from the euphonium on the Titanic.
Fixed between two smoky plates
of glass is an oily ghost that hovered
for decades over a pre-war tin of Swarfega.
The faint opacity of the vitrine
on your left is the Yes of a girl from 1904.
That concludes our tour.
Be careful as you leave,
not to inhale the gift shop.
Just my little joke, ladies and gentlemen.
Please remember your guide.
in the nineteenth century, smelling
of gin and orphans and axle-grease.
Over there is the bright blue air of Umbria
in the 1550s, loud with the thrap of pennants,
the clatter of lances.
And this is night air from beneath
the Brooklyn Bridge, grazed
with the silence of Hart Crane.
That row of jars contains the air
from several Georgian withdrawing rooms,
mostly exhaled in secret sighs
of lust and longing. Musky and dotted
with flies is the air that hung close
to the days and raiment of John the Baptist.
While the air Vermeer painted is clear
as light after a shower of rain
one otherwise flawless September morning.
Remarkably alike are the little boost
of air that ruffled Napoleon’s kiss-curl
at Waterloo and the final E flat
from the euphonium on the Titanic.
Fixed between two smoky plates
of glass is an oily ghost that hovered
for decades over a pre-war tin of Swarfega.
The faint opacity of the vitrine
on your left is the Yes of a girl from 1904.
That concludes our tour.
Be careful as you leave,
not to inhale the gift shop.
Just my little joke, ladies and gentlemen.
Please remember your guide.
Page(s) 3
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The