Ignis (February)

[For Susan Smith] Metaphors can do our heads in. Take Emily Dickinson, for example: “Those—dying then,/ Knew where they went-/ They went to God’s Right Hand.” This ancient way of saying they expected honour is altered by her disarming and illogical extension of the anthropomorphism: “That Hand is amputated now/ And God cannot be found-“ How can she know? Her second verse, like February after January, is a separate metaphor: “The abdication of Belief/ Makes the Behavior small—/ Better an ignis fatuus/ Than no illume at all—“ Is foolish fire really better? What “Behavior” can she mean?