Repoussé (Three Actors)

Repoussé (Three Actors)

Heaven’s vengeance on marauding brigands

Hammered in a wine cup

Proof against the devil

Yet the show doesn’t start

Catching, it resets and strains

of music introduce

Three actors

They take the stage and play their scene

Speak their dialogue again

And one

Outwitted and a step behind

Just now emerging from the mineshaft

Shakes his fist as his quarry flees

See how in the least of things

the anatomy of a compound eye

This recluse in a cave who peers into pioneer shanties

Finds you wherever you may hide

Cast a circle

around the campfire

The storyteller enjoys the glow of flattering regard

And every night breeze bellows up

a fitful heart of fire

throwing the colder, darker boundary

into deeper contrast

drawing the eye to the stick

Waved here and there mesmerically

A black line traced across subsiding flame

Beast

Right Understanding

(2015, Stephanie Foster)