POMPEII

I took this photo at the Museum of Victoria this afternoon. I saw no signs to say whether or not taking photos was permitted.

As they lie there, statuesque representations of human bodies - still - quiet, frozen forever in the arms of another or lying face down - arms bent at the elbow - legs outstretched, you know that they're not the bodies of real people who once lived in Pompeii in AD 79. It doesn't matter that they are just casts of the space that the person occupied under the ash and stone. You imagine their last thoughts, their fear & anguish as the cloud descended; their need to hide their faces or bury themselves in the comfort of another as they heard each other cry. And I cried, openly, unafraid that anyone would see as I looked, for there is something of them in me & me in them as they lay there. And then I noticed the figure of the man in the middle of that circle of beings, he seemed so incredibly out of place, was he just simply sitting & thinking at that final moment. He seems to hold court, but those around him can no longer hear, they are there and yet simultaneously absent!