Poem
Ian Pindar
Mrs Beltinska in the Bath
Mrs Beltinska in the Bath
Mrs Beltinska in the Bath
Pavel in profilehis eye at the spy-hole
watches Mrs Beltinska in the bath.
Steam from the spy-hole
rises and unravels in the dark
cold apartment at his back,
where a TV with the sound down
shows the River Vltava
bursting its banks.
And as Prague’s metro floods
and the Mala Strana floods
and the Waldstein Palace floods
and the National Theatre floods
and the Kampa Modern Art Museum floods,
Mrs Beltinska sinks her treasures in the suds.
The first Czech bible (1488) is drowned
in sewage water, but the warm orange glow
from Mrs Beltinska’s bathroom
coming through the spy-hole
gives an odd kind of halo
to Pavel’s head seen from behind.
© 2010, Ian Pindar
From: Emporium
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
From: Emporium
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
Ian Pindar
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1970)
Ian Pindar was born in London and lives in Oxfordshire. His first collection of poetry, Emporium, will be published by Carcanet in 2011, and his second collection, Constellations, in 2012. Pindar is an active writer, contributing poetry and reviews to many of the UK’s notable broadsheet and poetry magazines. Last year he was awarded the Arthur Welton Award by the Society of Authors to assist to...
Poems
Poems of Ian Pindar
Close
Mrs Beltinska in the Bath
Pavel in profilehis eye at the spy-hole
watches Mrs Beltinska in the bath.
Steam from the spy-hole
rises and unravels in the dark
cold apartment at his back,
where a TV with the sound down
shows the River Vltava
bursting its banks.
And as Prague’s metro floods
and the Mala Strana floods
and the Waldstein Palace floods
and the National Theatre floods
and the Kampa Modern Art Museum floods,
Mrs Beltinska sinks her treasures in the suds.
The first Czech bible (1488) is drowned
in sewage water, but the warm orange glow
from Mrs Beltinska’s bathroom
coming through the spy-hole
gives an odd kind of halo
to Pavel’s head seen from behind.
From: Emporium
Mrs Beltinska in the Bath
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