‘At the National Gallery of Ireland’ by Kirby Wright

TOO CLOSE? You risk missing everything, including backgrounds depicting battles, lovers, kites, and armadas wrecked on jagged coasts. Step back. Straighten up. Go for the wide view to enjoy the more spilling from edges.

In Moynan’s Military Manoeuvres, don’t miss the steeple rising at the end of the pitted dirt street or, on the far right, the leader of the peasant boy army wearing a helmet adorned with a horse-hair plume. In Stothard’s The Horrors of War, you’ll see grey she-devils floating above the killings of humans and horses.

Viewing’s a charade. Lean in to demonstrate interest. Lean out to register surprise. Stare into the ornate gold-framed mirror—observe a room of bent-backed observers studying as quiet as mice.

Kirby Wright was born and raised in Hawaii. He was a guest lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. American Dreamland, his new poetry collection, is forthcoming from Bottlecap Press.