In search of a little lantern...

The head of Dionysus with fruit and ivy in his hair (central panel from tessellated floor of a Roman villa).

2nd half of the 2nd c. - 3rd c. A.C.

Nights we could not sleep—       summer insects singing in dry heat,              short-circuiting the nerves—

Grandma would light a lamp,        at the center of our narrow room,               whose clean conspiracy of light

whispered to the tall blank walls,       illuminating them suddenly              like the canvas of a dream.

Between the lamp and wall       her arthritic wrists grew pliant              as she molded and cast

improbable animal shapes moving       on the wordless screen:              A blackbird, like a mynah, not a crow.

A dark horse’s head that could but would not talk.       An ashen rabbit (her elusive self)           triggered in snow

that a quivering touch (like death’s)       sent scampering into the wings              of that little theater of shadows

that eased us into dreams.

—-

Theater of Shadows

Derek N. Otsuji

—-

Philippe Pache

Salomé et Juliette

Yozo Hamaguchi