Poem: Openings of Long Ago

Michelangelo Cerquozzi, Party in a garden with Roman artists, oil on canvas, 97.5 cm (38.3 in); width: 132.5 cm (52.1 in). Courtesy of WikiCommons.

By JEREMY HIGHT, May 2022

Does the buzz of a moment dissipate like fog and dew

Or does it seep away quiet in drips and traces

So many empty glasses and tossed plates after the once opening

Or is that odd scent coming sometimes rare and small by happenstance

Of the room long demolished   

And the era shifted away into past

Dappled light as near sinful in that one exhibition

Perhaps the museums are the mausoleums here

Markers    and so much measure   context of past

But that odd itch at night no insect on the skin

But the opening once of portals

Of aesthetics   of experimentation

Dispersed from other decades and even centuries

Yet still alight and alive  as were the mutterings and gasps

Mouths agape in wonder one evening so long ago.