#496 - in the day of the gladness of his heart (Sheba to Solomon)

 

7.iv.21

465

2.97

in the day of the gladness of his heart

(Sheba to Solomon)

 

ekphrastic for Edward John Poynter’s

‘The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon’

 

 

having heard from a hoopoe

sent this invitation

gifts were not enough

 

silver and cedar

the budding forth

 

tassles

and peacocks at will

 

having heard a rumour, come

having heard the song

 

doves eyes

and sheep from the wash

honey and milk under tongue

 

a garden of harps indoors

all the ages are here

an empire conjures authority

 

the monkey with fan feather

come from the basket

 

some cast as ghosts in the columns

shrunk, leer

 

the court all gossip

breath through a fabric of time

 

the king is held in galleries

 

apple nose

so much robe to raise

how beautiful are thy feet with shoes

foreshadow here the depilation

the day brocaded

ass hooves too, so advised

 

young roes that are twins

feed among lilies

 

as clusters of the vine

the whole scene breast borne

or rather those glands point the absent middle

bejewelled bedecked, a throw away

let’s call it a kind of intention

 

eyes astonished

 

one imagines a song

 

tricks of the bed are traditional now

let’s just say she came to believe

 

everyone fragrant in the picture

a Bible tromp l’oeill

 

remains a riddle

and solved to her satisfaction

 

only the lions are stone