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Antae

Poetry

A Passaggio for The Knights

Julian Bishop

Volume 8, Issue 2 ,

Photo by June O on Unsplash

(Caravaggio painted The Beheading of St John in gratitude for his passaggio (or admission) into the
Knights of Malta in 1607)

When a tragedy approaches its climax,
this is how the last act plays out –
first a jangle as Death wrenches a key
in the padlock fastened onto life.
Lines of cord unspooling since
birth slip the adamantine knot.
Set: the granite fortress of loneliness
behind whose walls all men stare
through bars of sorrow and remorse.

From beneath the arch’s backdrop
enter the cast – a gaoler, a love lost,
distraught mother, two partners
in crime. Freeze-frame the play
as blood clabbers at the edge
of the stage. As life evaporates,
the damned man scribbles his name,
a long-running stain at the base
of a stage he’ll never escape.

Julian Bishop

Julian Bishop’s first collection of eco poems called We Saw It All Happen was published in 2023 by Fly On The Wall Press. A former environment journalist turned poet, he lives in Barnet with his family and dog and runs a small media company. He’s worked for many years as both reporter and producer with the BBC and also on ITV’s News At Ten. He’s been widely published and also been runner-up in the International Ginkgo Prize for Eco Poetry. He’s currently working on a follow-up collection of eco poems as well as a separate project about the life and times of the Italian painter Caravaggio.

In Volume 8, Issue 2