Golden Light
By Ian C Smith

You stare obliquely,
helmet lustrous through decades,
pride etched with sadness.

Caressing metal,
are those feathers perfected
by an apprentice?

Or is it Rembrandt,
master of shadows you watch,
his eyes, artful brush?

Are you his brother
the shoemaker-cum-sitter
viewed in galleries?

By Leiden’s canals
do you envy your sibling,
his youth, skill, standing?

Do you share his group
or brag to the taverner
of your place in art?

Beyond the grave’s dark
your careworn face, modelled still
in paint, burnished light.

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Ian C Smith’s work has been published in Antipodes, BBC Radio 4 Sounds, cordite, The Dalhousie Review, Griffith Review ,Poetry Salzburg Review, The Stony Thursday Book, & Two Thirds North.  His seventh book is wonder sadness madness joy, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide).  He writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, and on Flinders Island.