The Inquisitor's Interrogation

The Inquisitor's Interrogation


During the interrogation,
I was asked no questions.
I said nothing, observed a man in gray suit,
Even his face was painted gray,
His eyelids a dark blue.
He was dancing a galliard
In the shadows of a statue
Of Galileo. I said nothing,
But my long answers
To the unasked questions
Were being recorded by a blonde secretary,
Her legs
Looked like a pale sunset
That had been speared by fancy dress ball.
Her toes
Had been anointed
By oil from an extreme unction.

I read my testimony,
Although I had not given any testimony.
The testimony stated
That I stood on a soapbox in Hyde Park
Gave speeches
That artists painted masks
On the ashes of those burned at the stake.
I had never been in Hyde Park.
I was a poet, not a painter.

The room changed into a circus.
I was sitting on the bleacher’s back row.
On the top of the circus tent
A girl glittered with sequins,
Walked upside down.
Her long blonde hair
Fell from her head, quivered.
On her wedding ring finger the diamonds
Of her engagement ring added to the glittering.
It was the engagement ring I gave her.
I was supposed to marry in two days.
It was then I began to understand
Where I had been for the last few hours.


Duane Locke

Posted over on Arabesques