La Folie de Grandeur

Renee Magritte, La Folie de Grandeurs II

La Folie de Grandeur

He could have at least named it Phileas,

That contrary kook.  

Oh, but the French and their damned irony-

Right, M. Passepartout?

It was by rail! By rail! No balloons!

And what romanticism

That could have been portrayed by that buffoon,

Timeless imagery:

The subjugation of tonnage by torque,

Of wheel by track, of iron by steel;

The magic order produced from the suppression

Of the raw, black salt of the Earth

Via technology:

Firebox to cylinder, Valve and Regulator transmuting

Savage power into productive work

Like yolks over bulls.

I suppose I see the idea behind those gridlocked

Thighs, that engorging torso-

The ever-growing British Empire-

But how am I, the subject of this whole blessed business,

Reduced to that bloody blue balloon?
 

by: Raymond Alistair