![\"Paolo_vetri,_museo,_1875,_03\"](\"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Paolo_vetri_museo_1875_03.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Queenly robes,
\nthe arms of lovers,
\neven skin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soft, elastic grip
\nshe no longer can recall.<\/p>\n
Lurching from alley to avenue
\nshe clumps her clumsy way,
\nmurmurs muffled beneath
\nnumberless folds of linen
\nbrittle as uninked papyrus.
\nShe has forgotten words.<\/p>\n
Empty,
\nshe is empty,
\nnothing within
\nexcept the heart
\nmissing its metronome.
\nShe does not tick in time
\nwith the rest of the earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hours.
\nLike dream-people, she does not breathe;
\nthe absent sound of inhale and exhale
\ndizzies her,
\nmakes the world awry.
\nHow could you miss so much
\nsomething you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never really noticed?<\/p>\n
This long wandering takes its toll:
\nshe sloughs off wrappings
\nlike a snake its skin,
\nyet no new supple self
\nemerges audacious and unblemished
\nin the wake of loss.
\nHer denuded brown feet
\nshrivel, mortified,
\nflesh laid bare in the most intimate revelation.<\/p>\n
Another inch of cloth shreds;
\nwith its end\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unwinding
\nan amulet for luck in the afterworld
\nclinks to the pavement.
\nShe hears it
\nbut its music has no meaning;
\nShe doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bend to retrieve it.
\nIt would contain no clue
\nto what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s searching for:
\nher name,
\neven the most trivial memory\u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nwhether faience beads or carnelians caressed her neck,
\na dear friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laugh,
\nthe taste of figs,
\nwas there a child?\u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nsomething of life,
\nsomething of self to hold onto.
\nNothing comes.
\nHer wrappings trail her in the dirt
\nlike the ribbons of a careless dancer.<\/p>\n
Fumes of myrrh and cassia rise,
\nanother amulet clinks to the ground,
\nas she unravels. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Queenly robes, the arms of lovers, even skin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soft, elastic grip she no longer can recall. Lurching from alley to avenue she clumps her clumsy way, murmurs muffled beneath numberless folds of linen brittle as uninked papyrus. She has forgotten words. Empty, she is empty, nothing within except the heart missing its metronome. She does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1170,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions\/1170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}