[Written by Violet Maxwell]
[Image Credits: Pastorale, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1873, oil on canvas. Image accessed through Wikimedia Commons. The Painting is housed at Kelvingrove Art Gallery.]
Pastorale, 1873
“pastoral landscape” they say
tracing hieroglyphics on clean sheets of paper
but you can’t bring yourself to look over your shoulder
the sound betrays it, though
in the end
phantoms, maybe, old
friends drifting towards the horizon slick with inertia
the grass outlining your shadow is a sarcophagus today.
don’t question it and you may be lucky enough to not find yourself
barricaded from all that endless world out there
& you’re sent reeling back, this endless capacity making you fall to your knees
unceasing light as the organ swells and suddenly
i’m sat there again, ephemeral
with a body like an effigy & a mind that’s catching up
pastoral like a state of mind where you can live beneath sunshine this vivid
pretending that none of it will hurt you
in the end.
