Esperanza the Relief Sculptress
Shearing the copper sheet to match the length and width
of the tracing paper, she starts to rouse Lapu-Lapu’s warriors
to slay Magellan. Wielding a burin, she etches every sinew
into view, quick to brush bright shavings from the writhing
scene. She grooves the copper with a tongue depressor—
bulked up arms and legs are what she’s after before pouring
cement to warp the figures into stasis. Gummed to a plank,
her burnished work lies at the ready: she douses bodies
with liver of sulphur to bring out each fold of flesh.
After rallying from the fumes she strikes a mallet,
hand-hammering negative space into the pitch of gongs.
Each blow stirs her men to a war dance.
Christina Lloyd is pursuing a PhD in creative writing through Lancaster University. Her work appears in various journals, including Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme and The North.