The Art of the Ruin
Ruins are always provocative.
The imagining eyes
rebuild the colonnade,
the wall, the roof, and pediment.
The toppled stones
speak of time and fortune
and the calamity a moment
or millennium can bring
to human art and industry.
The ghosts run before
attacking horsemen. A heart
is ruptured by a spear.
A small dog chokes
on ash and noxious gas.
A body decomposes
having fallen to disease
interpreted as a god's curse.
Even the print-shirted engineer
from Springfield, Illinois,
with his Instamatic hanging
by a nylon strap around his neck,
will shudder as he sees himself
stretching arms around his children
as the shockwave flattens Nagasaki.
The imagining eyes
rebuild the colonnade,
the wall, the roof, and pediment.
The toppled stones
speak of time and fortune
and the calamity a moment
or millennium can bring
to human art and industry.
The ghosts run before
attacking horsemen. A heart
is ruptured by a spear.
A small dog chokes
on ash and noxious gas.
A body decomposes
having fallen to disease
interpreted as a god's curse.
Even the print-shirted engineer
from Springfield, Illinois,
with his Instamatic hanging
by a nylon strap around his neck,
will shudder as he sees himself
stretching arms around his children
as the shockwave flattens Nagasaki.
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Author's Note
The stones tell stories
Other stories by Gary Hardaway
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"...the calamity a moment
or millennium can bring." Says it all. *
***
Those toppled stones hold all the dark threads. Tragedy does hit home. Good poem.
Thank you, Sam,
Amanda, and Matt.
Ruins are always
provocative. The imagining
eyes rebuild
the colonnade, the wall,
the roof, and pediment.
The toppled stones speak
of time and fortune
and the calamity a moment
or millennium can bring
Insightful.*
Thank you, Gary.
*As I read this poem I kept thinking, "right, exactly, ohh."
Thank you, Nonnie.
Even the print-shirted engineer from Springfield Illinois . . . lovee this to ending.
Wow, great piece, Gary. Loved the noir "shudder" pun in the image of the Instamatic engineer who:
will shudder as he sees himself
stretching arms around his children
as the shockwave flattens Nagasaki
Ok, you did intend that, right!
Thank you, Paul and Ed.