Dan Hampson – Fitzcaraldo
Fitzcarraldo Revisited
After Dan Hampson’s `Lagoon’ 2015
Here’s the end of the world coming:
the boat climbing the mountain like a god,
British bloodhounds taming the jungle,
the wilderness suddenly full of pearls,
tablecloths, cut glass for the goat’s milk,
gaiters, bow ties to keep mosquitoes at bay.
Learned in the nursery, the rituals
of Empire can be transplanted anywhere.
But now, the women start to inhabit
their nakedness in a new way: turn grief
into smoke from the endless tobacco,
exhale as if they’ve found the key to this
mystery of mountains turning to sea;
learn to calculate, barter, betray.
Rosie Jackson
`Words at the Black Swan’ 7 vi 2015
