Monday, April 13, 2026

Poem and image recovered for Hungary this morning


from Motivist Suite

                              for Michael Egan

 

 

 

Freedom tosses her garland into the stormy sky

 

sun catches the wall plaster turns it

to sandpaper angled in sandy light at sundown

a jay jaywalks across the crazy paving

 

a halo could strangle a struggling saint

what chance the nymphs with pitchers on their heads

tangled in the tresses of the fountain’s willow?

 

the rough monument fingers the flag at half mast

 

*

This poem, part of a long suite written in 2011, came to mind last night with the defeat of Orban in Hungary. It also reminded me (the ‘sandy light’ etc.) of this photograph I took of a wall in Budapest. I used it before on this blog to dismember and unremember the death of Mararet Thatcher, but, it too, seems to have found a second ‘moment’ this morning.

Here is where that image was, with different texts of mine: Pages: Thatcher Dead.