EX CATHEDRA or A Moving Picture

EX CATHEDRA or a MOVING PICTURE

Is this a snapshot of a searchlight?

Of a family of chairs in flight

Seeking refuge, escaping the chase

By the unseen pursuers off-screen?

Or a moving picture of a moon

Illuminating a darkened sky

That could be a haven or dead-end?

Or is it a clip of hanging chairs

Before falling to a fatal fate?

Or a still of six arrested seats

Awaiting their uncertain future?                     

Their shadows the images of bats,

That presage freedom from fearfulness.

Is the door an entrance or an exit

Into a land of hope or despair?

Is a chair without a seat, a chair?

Would Magritte say: “Ce n'est pas une chaise”.

In truth, they’re in a small Spanish church,

In brief suspended animation,

In stop-motion beneath an aisle roof.

Should they not be in a cathedral?

After all, is not a cathedral named

For the Chair which seats the archbishop?