so next we turn to Rembrandt
whose Old Man in Military Costume
is crowned by a plume of ostrich
brash for battlefield headgear
despite a sombre palette of browns
above a riveted martial breast-plate
gleaming as burnished steel
a limpid spill of light slants down
over this old boy’s listening ear
divided brow
and wispy beard
across his lunar septum
casting a half-moon into shadow
with youth long since eclipsed
by every reckoning
past his fighting best
he is still kitted up for battle
his moist green eyes askance
left of centre in their focus
oblique in reflecting
all of our ageing …
Getty Museum: Man in Military Costume