The smell of the foundry surrounds you
abounds and wreaths around you.
A man of ore, born of the earth
I thought of you as Roman.
Alive, shuddering with the stress
and exertions
of recent war
The thrill of hardship
fresh upon you,
made ever-stronger by violent work
your fibres stretch then relax
to gather in quiet, resting power
Glittered in sweat,
you have raced through history
to arrive, tattered and magnificent,
heaving, and worn like a mountain
I have melted into you -
piston thighs greased with excitement!
As your black-ringed fingers
chase a whitened path,
through my pebbled steam
Our minerals mix:
salt and blood, tears and love
and the hooves of legion drum in my ears,
outpacing a gathering storm
as little death overwhelms me
You are home,
hanging suspended in a grief-cloud
above me.
And I invite you, with a succession of imagined dilations,
to rain down.
Apr 13, 2016
Apr 13, 2016 at 10:58 AM UTC
The smell of the foundry surrounds you
abounds and wreaths around you.
A man of ore, born of the earth
I thought of you as Roman.
Alive, shuddering with the stress
and exertions
of recent war
The thrill of hardship
fresh upon you,
made ever-stronger by violent work
your fibres stretch then relax
to gather in quiet, resting power
Glittered in sweat,
you have raced through history
to arrive, tattered and magnificent,
heaving, and worn like a mountain
I have melted into you -
piston thighs greased with excitement!
As your black-ringed fingers
chase a whitened path,
through my pebbled steam
Our minerals mix:
salt and blood, tears and love
and the hooves of legion drum in my ears,
outpacing a gathering storm
as little death overwhelms me
You are home,
hanging suspended in a grief-cloud
above me.
And I invite you, with a succession of imagined dilations,
to rain down.
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