100-word proem: 'curtain'

From Julius, writer and visual artist, here's another 100-worder. I very much like the combination of clarity and mystery, menace and ancient wisdom. Although the location seems specific, there are aspects in this prose poem that gesture at both broader history (personal, cultural, political) and current world events.

Thank you to all who have sent prose-poems in; there's time and space for more – see here.

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Curtain

The turret rising hard up, as if on a hydraulic lift, spreads up over the ruins of neighbourliness. Arrow slits on the castellation follow along, forking historical zeal, reminding the party-goers below that an assault had once been planned. Almost paralyzed up on the parapet, bow taut like tensile steel, the keeper plays out loud to the gallery.

Have you spoken of the wayward? Think of your origins. Where would your families be? Have you spoken of the signs?

It is the dance of the ancients, stone around stone around stone.

Go, they whisper. You are young, you are young.


© Julius Smit