Ornamental Weaponry

Never the war but an intimation of
its shape, a titillation, sharp point and deep
relation. Who to be before the weird weight
of aesthetics. At the Rijksmuseum,

they have naval models, a library of the world, pained brushstrokes of fur
on every imperial cloak, and guns, countless porcelains,
cannons of several eras.
One installation of various spears, blades—haloed by backlight.

Some oxidized or rusted. How scimitar treats the tongue,
lilt of it—a silver scimitar…
Leaving, I thought of Brand’s Verso 19.01, which apprehends
slippers “elegant with violence, as elegant as violence.”

I remember an opera singer, too—a redhead
—in the exit tunnel.