A Trick of Sunlight: Poems

Pasts

Pasts The past’s quaint versions of the past delight Our tolerance with gauche anachronisms: Ovid is fin amor plus archaisms, Swooning Lucretia’s stays are laced too tight, Great Alexander is a Christian knight. We patronize their pretty solecisms, And even envy the distorting prisms That bathed their pasts in such familiar light. We’re too aware to do that now, we say, Too conscience-stricken, too sophisticated, Although we know our empathies betray Our own impedimenta half-translated, And someone will be tickled pink one day To come across the pasts that we’ve created. 28 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...