Jul 17, 2013
Share:
The origin of mound is unknown. It lies buried within itself.
You would think it comes down eroded, from mountain
but the case has not been proved by the legal,
careful minds of etymology.
So I will pretend it comes from mundus, Latin, originally,
for a slight slope Vico tells us poets
framed to mean the whole world, when they surmised
it was a sphere and therefore sloped slightly
everywhere. A mound, too, is a small world sloped
usually for the dead, but not always.
Sometimes hay over grain, like Monet’s hennaed heaps,
sometimes gold bullion or a tonnage of tinned food
waits under the reinforced ground of a mound.
A mound a hill may be carved out and into,
like the Irish hills of Tara were, in pre-history, the rocks
removed room by room, the reasons yet evanescent.
While we have you...
...we need your help. While reading "Mound" by Christopher Phelps, you might have noticed the absence of paywalls at Boston Review. We are committed to staying free for all our readers. We've also gone one step further and become completely ad-free. This means you will always be able to read us without roadblocks or barriers to entry. It also means that we rely on you, our readers, for support. If you like what you read here, pledge your support to keep it free for everyone by making a tax-deductible donation.
July 17, 2013
