In his head there is
a hotel: silvered windows,
a view of water,
always calm.
Silvered windows
and empty rooms
where ghosts rattle about
like marbles in a skull.
Stars bob and sway
in the Prussian Blue sky
that floats before his eyes
where stars drift loose
like reflections of light
on the sea, and where
he drifts loose, like a doll
within a doll; a Russian toy
or a boat without an anchor;
a doll within a doll within
a doll’s house, above a lake
where light floats loose,
and a skull rattles about
a marble hall,
a stone avenue,
full of toys and light,
floating loose
on Prussian Blue
seas, below a hotel
full of Russian ghosts
______________________
Ben Tufnell is a curator and writer based in London. His most recent book is In Land: Writings Around Land Art and Its Legacies (Zero Books, 2019).
Comments