A fellow poet, Charlotte Segaller, kindly gave me permission to post here her fine poem about the Tracey Emin sculpture "Roman Standard" recently believed stolen from outside of the Anglican Cathedral. Thanks, Charlotte.

elegy for a stolen sculpture
for the artist Tracey Emin

perched
it was
on a long thin pole
like the lit end
of a match

bronze bird
any bird
burning itself away

was side by side
with nothingness
in the shadow
of a cathedral

was
by a trick of the light
from the front and rear
invisible

as if slender
were the only word
a choked world
could render



wirelessly weak signal

earth's last bird
on the blink perhaps
to whoever on a bender
took it home to bed

with
or without a choice
as if it had
no voice

Charlotte Segaller