Beyond the Fireplace – A Poem

If you follow the source link in the caption below the image, you’ll discover that this painting was used as a screen in a fireplace. The idea was to make it look like there was a room across the hearth. The fact of this trompe l’oeil, this illusion of another room beyond the reality, and the idea of these phantom people, of their phantom meal suddenly interrupted (judging by the overturned glass), provided the title for the following poem.

Beyond the Fireplace

I dreamed again you were alive
But reduced to a pair of eyes
Watching me, when I spoke
There was no body to hug

I went today to your graveside
To ask the wind again for a sign
That my dreams of you are real
And death is an interruption

©elsp 2025