LG: 'I Hans Majestät Konungens frånvaro'

IN THE ABSENCE OF HIS MAJESTY THE KING

   

One day in 1907 King Oscar II got up

from all the plush, vases, statuettes,

the heavy curtains

and the beautifully inlaid tables

in his study at Stockholm Castle.

And, with slow measured strides,

went elsewhere.

His funeral filled

almost an entire issue

of Ny Illustrerad Tidskrift.

After ninety-five years

equally well cleaned, hoovered

and polished; plush cushions

family portraits in silver frames

Queen Victoria of England,

the unfortunate Alexandra

and Nicholas of Russia.

Here it is still only 1907.

All the dead are still living.

The gulls on Strömmen are whirling

there in the same pale winter light

as the endless spaces Hades contains.

The monarch got up and walked

with firm steps out of his life, and

into the newly woken world of photography.

The room then gradually began

to change without changing:

ceased then in complete stillness

to be a room

and became a picture of itself.

And that of the Universe.

In the same desolately white winter light.