Chiaroscuro

Caravaggio's source,
always out of frame:
unexplained light
glinting on armour, skin and the Judas Kiss.

The Philosopher's Orrery,
an oil lamp for a sun:
the light of knowledge
reflected on faces of children and men.

Stanley shoots Thackeray's
Barry by candle-light
and the Emerald Isle
plays itself, Dark Prussia and England's Glory.

Shadows and light play
dirty with illusion,
themselves a metaphor
for the solid mandala of yin and yang.