​The Ambassadors. After Holbein, by Julia Griffin

The Ambassadors, by Hans Holbein the Younger (Germany) 1533

​The Ambassadors.  After Holbein
 
Practitioners of circumstance,
They stand, inured to foreign space,
Embodying the court of France.
Their diplomatic carapace
Deflects the whispering gallery;
Like Guildenstern and Rosencrantz,
Dependent on a king’s esprit,
They carry a distorted shield:
The sign of death, obscurely sealed.
 
The point transcends the specular:
Attempting honestly to see
Subjects the smugly secular
To boredom and indignity,
Discomfort and disturbing loss:
The world of the molecular -
The flesh, the globe, the very cross –
Must scatter into dust before
Death looms in focus from the floor.
 
Sic transit, then, the worldly ghost,
The caustic cornucopia
Of painted veil and silent boast.
The graveyards of Utopia
Gape at our feet; yet in the Square,
Where one-eyed Nelson keeps his post
And birds swoop up from earth to air,
Fresh wonders of perspective start,
Beyond the parables of art.

Julia Griffin

Julia Griffin has published in several online poetry journals, including Light, Lighten Up Online, Classical Outlook, and The Ekphrastic Review. ​