Tolu Oloruntoba: A Poem

Tolu Oloruntoba

AD79 

The Vesuvius horse --

a gelding, obviously --

harnessed still and petrified

these 1940 years,

is saddled for the ride

the masters never made

to the mountains.

All that grooming and shoeing,

to be bound still, even in death.

Archaeologists will find us

encased, one in tent city

tarp, the other half

in Styrofoam, chained

to phone cable and extension cord,

winning the penultimate round,

but losing the last together,

obviously, as old stars

and new satellites bear witness

to our time-lapse:

glowing, whisking, gone already.

-- from The Junta of Happenstance, by permission 

 

Tolu Oloruntoba notes that this poem is based on the story of the archaeological find of the Vesuvius horse in excavations at the site of the Pompeii eruption.

Time collapses. Look once, look again. Where are we when the future comes looking? What are we bound to?  

Dazzling language here and all through this book. And after the dazzlement, such depths! Thanks to Tolu and Palimpsest Press for permission to reproduce this poem.