
The poor, maimed thing. And yet look closer, see—
How she’s flying, motion focused on
And concentrated all around her knee,
And balanced marvelously on the dawn,
Its coolness, in midair, above the clouds
At Heathrow, when the skies begin to clear.
It is her own expression that she shrouds.
Fleeing the very news that brought us here,
She bows her head. But look—how she alone
Is the beheaded one. It’s Time, she’ll say,
False prophet, that seeks flesh and gnaws the bone.
And yet I recognized her right away,
Seeing her here, Iris, the Rainbow, and
In that moment, we changed native land.
Ekphrasis: Her Expression, Yiannis Doukas, translated from the Greek by A. E. Stallings
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