One Work: The Crystal Ball

for Raymond Taylor’s One Work challenge

By Harper Lewis Published 3 months ago • Updated 3 months ago • 1 min read

The Crystal Ball, John William Waterhouse, 1902

What image in that orb

raised you from your carved chair,

drew you away from your studies,

carnelian velvet flowing

like lava from your frame

within the hollow gaze of the skull?

Perhaps the Scottish play

is unfolding on a small stage

inside that globe, spots

and tomorrows staining today,

the players so tragic,

you can’t look away.

By my estimation, a sorceress is a magician, linking my piece to Paul’s.

Abracadabra.

Intrusive rhyme bothers me, except as a weapon.

Intertextuality is my passion.

Formalist/ New Critical are my guiding theories.

My words are mine, not a robot’s.

MA English literature, CofC

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