LEONARDO ON RATHLIN
“What would da Vinchi,
Have made of that leg?
Knee bent, hooked over nothing;
Severed at the ankle-bone;
Going nowhere fast.
An old stepping-stone Stood in a cauldron;
That’s boiling up myths Gory as ten sunsets;
Footless and gormless:
He would have dissected,
And peeled back The thick skin, constructed
A foot, and a boot;
Engaged the muscles
Somehow, with pulley,
And long strong rope looped
Around the Paps of Jura
And that erect rock At Carrick-a-rede.
With a bit of science
Like that, with a bit
Of art like that, Leonardo
Could have straightened things out.”