Epitaph for a forgotten poem

“A poem that has been forgotten, Parallax by Nancy Cunard, typeset and printed by the Hogarth Press in 1925. And a century on, Jon Larsen, Norwegian jazz musician turned cosmic dust hunter, who finds micrometeorites on undisturbed roofs. So we made an epitaph for a forgotten poem. From space dust.”

Ane gets out printing press & ink, Jules gets out dust sample & magnet.

[audio recording of Ane]

Kew in chestnut-time, September in Oxford Street Through the stale hot dust–
And up across Fitzroy Square

Jules:

to the Southbank. JCB yellow marks the spot. And sponsors a singing lift to level 6. One floor closer to the sky, I step out. Beneath scrutiny, I see an open door to the flat rooop. An accumulation site for micrometeorites & air conditioning units. The whole roof is a cosmic dust trap. Prevailing winds are summerlight up here today. Extraterrestrial particles pile along the parapet, signals blink the noisy dust.

[audio recording of Ane]

Light consuming the sea, and sun-dust on the mountain,

Jules:

Another star hunter stands up and looks my way. Hello, I nod. He nods back and bends down on a pretext of air conditioning repair. I take two photographs from different angles, sightlines to the nearest deposit. Later I can pinpoint the location on google maps of this astonished sky. But for now, flatten a piece of used tinfoil for the sample.

[audio recording of Ane]

Dry moss, grey stone,
Hill ruins, grass in ruins
Without water, and multitudinous Tintinnabulation in poplar leaves;
A spendri dust from desiccated pools, Spider in draughty husks, snail on the leaf –

Jules:

Dehydrated moss, bleached lichen, door paint peels, bloom-dust from gala moon, smoked tobacco. Dry graves. The tinfoil starts to crack and split. Quickly roll up, but don’t scuttle. You’re unseen here.

[audio recording of Ane]

And Beauty walked alone here, Unpraised, unhindered, Defiant, of single mind,
And took no rest,

Jules:

and has no epitaph.

[audio recording of Ane]

Spider-filled, with the hearth ash-laden from the last
Fire–

Jules:

soot settles. Evidence of dust disturbed on an air conditioning vent. Impurities, manmade or natural, the scabrous need separating from the extraterrestrial.

[audio recording of Ane]

(Frail brown
Pre-natal dust, what life is it you missed?)

Jules:

A neodymium magnet catches cosmic dust from the particulate matter. [Unwrap dust sample in tin foil, empty out. Hover magnet over dust] Nonmagnetic noise is smothering the signal...

[audio recording of Ane]

Words ... like the stony rivers Anguished and dry.

Jules:

Particles swirling as dust, we too percolate with rainwater and leach. Phosphate powder, but not all that remains is bone. Ashflicks linger. She’s clinging to my fingertips.

[Jules blows stardust into Ane’s ink, Ane presses print]

Ane:

I sit, instructed fool and phænix-growth, Ash-from-my-ash that made me, that I made Myself in the folded curve of Origin –

[Ane holds up epitaph print]

Ane:

Down a side-street, there’s a full century’s matter Collected–