ANATOMY OF THE COPPER MAN
(copperwork figure in a pub, Co Galway)
The entry wound is under the right elbow - here.
And as you can see
the neck of the fiddle has struck the heart. In fact
almost the whole fiddle has entered the body.
Only the head and feet remain intact.
Each arm, each leg, is fifteen fragments;
the trunk an archipelago, a jigsaw
presided over by the moonstruck face.
A relic of geansaí adheres to the neck;
lapels of a vanished coat. A straw hat
crowns this extraordinary apparition.
It fidgets forward in fine copper boots,
its own backbone for walking stick.
A king of shreds and patches, gentlemen,
held together by no thread of consequence.
Note how the fixed grin belies
the fact that the night sky floats through the wounds.
geansaí is the word for a pullover in Irish.
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