On Balance by Morrissey Sinead;
Author:Morrissey, Sinead; [Sinead Morrissey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4932586
Publisher: Carcanet
Published: 2017-08-05T16:00:00+00:00
when it’s time
ARTICULATION
And these, ladies and gentlemen, are the bones
of Napoleon’s horse, Marengo. Articulated thus
– tibia to fibula, scapula to humerus,
appendicular skeleton latched to the dome
of the spine and the thin ribs’ hanging flaps
encasing the space of the missing heart –
he seems refashioned out of a craft kit,
a balsawood model everyhorse, perhaps.
I am looking at eyes that looked at the Emperor
is nothing, however, to this: neither a coffee pot
nor toothbrush, nor His finest pearl-grey coat
from the mausoleum; not plaster
squeezed into the shape of what’s been lost
to bring it back to life as a death mask,
a punched-through backwards photograph
of itself; nor any of the things embossed
by use or touch or freer association
(loose talk, hearsay) with His shining likeness –
these very hooves trod mud at Austerlitz,
this very sacrum made final victory certain.
Moreover, put your eye to the eye socket
(one by one and gently) and observe
what changes: your straight perspective curves,
the floor on which you’re standing tilts,
the room’s clear atmosphere thickens
and as mirrors angled off against each other
produce an endless vaulted corridor
to somewhere else, still truer things are given:
of-all-the-Russias snow, a sky of smoke,
the bite of iron, entrails in a heap,
curled up like an outgrown foal, a man asleep
inside a horse’s ruptured stomach …
That’s how close Marengo stands to history –
Sphenoid, Vomer, Lacrimal, Mandible –
for however long he lasts before he crumbles,
portal, time machine, skeleton key
to what cannot be imagined. Who could resist
a ticket to the steaming blooded fields
of Europe just as the dog star fades?
Hold your breath now while I show you this.
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