‘The piece has caused much trouble in many ways, and I was forced to be a little barbaric’

— Giovanni Battista Lusieri. works supervisor at the Acropolis

 

‘I suppose I must have been unaccustomed to the noise.

As I reclined against the cool marble it seemed

that the chisels and picks were hacking at the light itself.

My very teeth shook at the sound of metopes prised

from their friezes by navvies wielding their crowbars. 

Centaurs reposed where they had been left, their faces turned

upwards as if peering into a sky as brittle as plaster.

Festive processions seemed to pause at our intrusion,

cups and grape-clusters held back from the hands of the priests. 

In the clarity of that light, in that cauldron of an afternoon,

what had been created whole was now broken.

It was as if we were hearing, in a desert somewhere far away,

the sound of great statues falling.  My lord, you will be pleased to hear

I encouraged the workers by asking them “what are you stopping for?

We are only waging war against forgotten empires.” ’

​

Meniscus 14.1, May 2026