The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Vesuvius Flows into Jacob More, by Baruch November

9/14/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Mount Vesuvius in Eruption, by Jacob Moore (Scotland). 1780.
Vesuvius Flows into Jacob More

1-
The dark entrails of seraphim unbind,
raw, from the firmament.
Pompeii confesses to Jacob More.
He pronounces the last rites.

2-
An elderly woman,
everyone’s grandmother,
though not once a mother,
turns to her grindstone again.

She's the one who drinks
the first seething
exhale of Vesuvius;
Jacob More drinks the last.

3-
The doves addled coos
harrow the ears.
They surrender wings to ash.

Under layers of crimson paint
no longer will they bring peace
to the maritime.

4-
Jacob More leaves his stool,
walks the pebbled sand,
looks to another mountain,
thinks he can make out
Pompeii’s desperate refrain:

"Paint me as though killer spoke thunder
Out of scarlet clouds,
As though my blood was the first to weep
Upon eastern sands."

5-
Infinite night drops on Pompeii
through muffled screams of falling.
The sand converts to glass.
The petulant hiss resounds
as molten paint runs into saltwater.

6-
The parched canvas beseeches
the doves to surface,
but Jacob More has painted the final rites,

and hardened over
by centuries, Pompeii can’t
shake itself from a dream.

Baruch November

​
Baruch November’s collection of poems entitled Dry Nectars of Plenty won BigCityLit’s chapbook contest in 2003. His poems and short fiction 
have been featured in Lumina, Paterson Literary Review, New Myths, The Forward, and the Jewish Journal. He teaches literature and writing courses at Touro College and lives in Washington Heights, New York.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY
    This site uses cookies to deliver your best navigation experience this time and next. Continuing here means you consent to cookies. Thank you.
    Join us on Facebook:
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead