By Órla Fay
Dublin, February 2017
There it hangs, just its-dark-self,
not even spectacular and yet closer inspection
requires even closer inspection –
this fabled work, word-of-mouth enhanced,
Chinese-whispered vast, requires some undoing.
The pronouncement of its title
is the casting of a spell:
La Cattura di Cristo
He, Himself, eyes downcast,
kissed by Judas and fled by John
while lamp-bearing Peter watches on.
And you look to the soldier’s arm
wrapped in polished armour,
reflective as a mirror
and grapple with your own conscience,
as the painter had contrived
in his battle with the light and the dark.
The greatest betrayal is a watermark,
a watershed, a benchmark.
I remember the day she placed
the sword in my side, how the wound
could only heal with time and plenty of it.
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Órla Fay is the editor of Boyne Berries Magazine. Recently her work has appeared in Boyne Berries 21, The Ofi Press Arctic Issue, A New Ulster, Sixteen Magazine and Spontaneity. She also has a poem forthcoming in The Honest Ulsterman. She blogs at www.orlafayblogspot.ie and more of her work can be found on www.orlafaypoetry.com