Lewis Chess Knight Replica (in memory of James Wilson & Robert Chapman) 1. Lewis Chess Knight replica from the British Museum: belligerent & comedic, sat astride his miniature steed. 2. Far more than souvenir, more a talisman & amulet of our secret brotherhood. 3. Objet d’art, clown-piece, he perches on my bookcase scowling at the imagined enemy hordes. Absurd Hebridean fixed in quixotic preoccupation. What quest electrifies him? Holds his body tense, his sword raised horizontal & rapidly heating? He’s a relic from Old Albion, a denizen of our childhood kingdom, holding onto the reins for dear life, his horse paler than whalebone-ivory. 4. Caricature of tragi- comic characterisation, a fossil of our misplaced imaginations, this warrior’s poised erect to do battle on the field of Armageddon. Yes, he’s a spitting image of the figurines we used to mould as kids out of modelling clay. Underdog-heroes caught in end- game scenarios of pallid jades & perpetual checkmates. Here cometh our White Knight: glorious, yet vitriolic in every soul-flaying defeat. 5. See, he casts an ironical eye on life, & on death, & on everything in between. Nothing, absolutely nothing dares to pass him by. Mark Wilson Mark Wilson has previously published four poetry collections: Quartet For the End of Time (Editions du Zaporogue, 2011), Passio (Editions du Zaporogue, 2013), The Angel of History (Leaky Boot Press, 2013) and Illuminations (Leaky Boot Press, 2016). He is also the author of a verse-drama, One Eucalyptus Seed, about the arrest and incarceration of Ezra Pound after World War Two. His poems and articles have appeared in: The Black Herald, The Shop, 3:AM Magazine, International Times, The Fiend, Epignosis Quarterly, Dodging the Rain, The Ekphrastic Review and Le Zaporogue.
1 Comment
Alan Brickman
11/16/2021 02:26:01 pm
Mark, I love this poem. A great use of the "object d'art," great use of the chess metaphors, wonderful insights about war and masculinity and ... chess! Thanks.
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