Day Twenty-Seven
Manchester Art Gallery's exhibition Rethinking the Grand Tour reassesses art of the British Empire. The subject of my poem, A Niger Fisherman, can be seen on this page.
I almost wish the curator's note gone,framing this apricot syrup sun as
pulp, squeezed through a fist;The fishermen lit like fantasy;Marketed beauty for turning heads
Empire-conscious.I stand palewith the undepicted details.My skin, prickledEmpire-conscious.If I took this little rethinking card,
silenced it in my pocket,
marker-penned out the unseem'dlegacy line of Empire Marketing Board,might it quiet this discomfort?
The sun, laid unsickly on the river.The river, not bleeding the sun.The mangrove, wading the riveruncurated. Unmolested.The fisherman's net, swungmore free beneath the mangrove.
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