act 1 scene 1 black box recorder this archivist is tired Elizabeth don't touch the paper interstitial play looking at the guilty the cosmo-magical basis of the ancient Chinese city pinhole camera

8. pinhole camera

In the jewellery box
                                        was a secret compartment
with grandmother's red glassy broach
ripped baize                              and tarnished silver

in a box                                   pieces of eight, pearls
a treasure chest                      sequinned mermaids
Pandora's Inn, Restronguet                we sailed out
found a lazy creek                               telling stories.

                                                     The Chinese puzzle
slide each panel                                a little at a time
to get inside                                    skinning a rabbit
                                                       light on the organs

inside the camera obscura
                            an image of the creek, an injection
pin sharp, slides                     projected in the dome
of a skull, a planetarium               then stepping out

out of the booth                                        sweatlodge
                                                              organs leaking
butter beans and ratatouille                from roadkill
a fox, a snatched fur handbag.

                                                            Hodgkin's paint
reinterpreting the frame.
                                         On the pier at Restronguet
drinking wine, talking                    looking at photos

the box Jung was in                         his heart attack
he said afterwards                           it all seemed 3d
                                                                  a simulation
you could step outside

                                                              jewellery unlit.
The sage archivist leaves the city
                                                       when work is done
at the west gate                     retires, this is the way
                                   of heaven.