(drawing, Rembrandt van Rijn, c.1640)
Charles Wyatt
Christ's head lolls back
and drips brown ink.
He has three right arms
and the figures holding him
are hopelessly entangled.
Given a half turn, (9 to 12),
a head and raised hands
appear at the level of the grave.
On the verso more clearly
this figure holds a sword
in a tight backswing prior
to beheading a kneeling man,
John the Baptist, we must assume —
economy and irony themselves
as near kin as cousins.
Charles Wyatt's The Spirit Autobiography of SM Jones won the Texas Review Press Novella Award. He has fiction in Alaska Quarterly Reivew and Kenyon Review and poems in Hanging Loose, West Branch and The Sewanee Review. His work last appeared in Issue 9 of the Marlboro Review. He recently retired from the Nashville Symphony where he was a flautist. His website: http://www.charleswyatt.com
Copyright ©2002 Charles Wyatt