Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump

            on Joseph Wright’s painting depicting a recreation of Boyle’sxperiment in which a bird is deprived of oxygen

He paints the scene by candlelight,

so we can feel how shadows

exhale

their separate caresses

on the faces of the guests

who’ve come to watch experiment

as parlor trick.

They see a  faintish  glow

illumine

each taper-lit tuck

of lace

that’s pulled back to show

the paleness of the women’s wrists

and breasts,

while melting tallow sends

its reek of wick-singe

around the tired old magus

at the center,

who looks past them all

as if he’s performed this task

far too many times to care. 

Someone’s wife weeps

daintily,

comforted by her husband’s

reassuring grasp,

while the lovers embrace,

attending only to each other,

as if there’s just one experiment

they can bother with.

Only the girl stares

up at the bird and watches

him drown                                                                              

in his flask of preempted air,

as she does each morning

when the bell of her dress

is pulled down

over her eyes and mouth,

and she feels her arm flail,

uncertain of its sleeve,

like the bird, his one extended wing,

a single oar,

rowing him round and round

inside the glass.

© Copyright, Jeanne Wagner.
All Rights Reserved.