Santa Fe Poetry Broadside
Issue #11, September, 1999 : --  1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -12
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Rebecca Seiferle
The Sacrifice Tree

                 

Archaeological Record

When King Olaf was converted
to the sign of the cross,
it was by the Proof
of a sparrow flying through
the suddenly stricken great
                                                                        The Sarajevo excavation has unearthed
a tomb containing the fully articulated skeleton
of one man. Several artifacts
were found with him; of most interest
is a bronze helmet with a stiff plume
that appears to be made of horsehair

                  hall, from one end to
another, from one door
to the next, so Brief
is human life.
Is it yesterday
                                                                        and which resembles the helmet
of the philistines, "the sea-faring
Peoples" depicted on various
Egyptian friezes, hundreds of them
defeated, a rope linking their necks
as they are lead away by a single thread
                  or are the ships setting sail for Troy
tomorrow? The stones
of the city are still smoldering
with a fire that could not be
extinguished,
                                                                        of fate. As already noted,
the Helmet of the Philistine
resembles the helmet of the
Achaeans who destroyed Troy,
and other armor found with the corpse
includes the characteristic greaves,
breast plate, short sword...
                  the walls consumed
in a fire so hot
that it made whatever
was made of earth--the bricks
of every house and temple, the paving stones
of every street--
                                                                       
which may elucidate the origins
of these warring peoples, for even though
archaeomagnetic or carbon dating has not
yet been completed, this "Adam"
appears to be the oldest specimen
yet unearthed, his armor, the earliest
example.
                  catch fire and burn, and when everything else
had been consumed, the ground itself
caught fire and the earth
began to burn.

Copyright © 1999 Rebecca Seiferle.

About the poet.

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Issue #11, September, 1999 :
Santa Fe Poetry Broadside.