2An ancient brass-framed photograph, tacked
remorsefully above his mantle shelf, disrupts
his sense of reason and his nonsense
sense of history. The years have run
away from him, not slipped, as gracefully
they glide for oh so many other men-
and Honi soit qui mal y pense(1)
no longer rings resounding truth.
He wonders where her headstone lies.
14 January 2008
1 Old French. "Shamed is he who thinks evil of it." This phrase is the motto of the Order of the Garter, an old English chivalric order, and it still appears today on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.