Victory

Despite it all, something stirs at the sight

Of the cool, enameled body,

The unreflecting eye,

And the long jaw like a chisel

With its single, violent purpose.

It hangs dead still at the water's surface

And seems lifeless, until

A flickering gesture

Carves fish after fish

From any school that swims too close

And creates in the world a new absence,

As if this might be the shaper

As well as the defacer

Of the damaged masterpiece

Whose headless body hails the bodies

Of the many Egyptians excised at Cyprus.