Saturday, June 19, 2010

what the mocking bird said it's just a little

Some time after that season of keening rain
blanched the bleached slats of blue-gray siding,
the gutter's low scrub bloomed shortly once-
just before the blocked and frosted jalousies
shuttered the lime-streaked porch for life.

Inside the nod of flowers drifted away
drowning out pool filter chlorine whines
behind dapples on dry buttery siding
where once the rain had flowed in sheets
over a withering brown oak's low branches
and vibrant figs coaxed from depleted earth.

A table plated with unfinished eggs gives
a circus of coffee aged evidence of lift
in a place where nothing uplifting is left:
no mouth in the greasy skillet entices ears
with a low sizzle that has long since passed
into a torn curtain obscurring cloudy skies,
ripples form on the pocked aluminium shore
of lidless guardian service with steamy
gradients of starch under the striped rose
hanging a shadow over the newsprint news.

Puckered lilies would rather smooch the moon
than greet the apricot rise of morning stalled
long since a quartered acre of silence arose,
arose for a sun that only after stabs next door
and only after an early breeze shakes uneven rain
from other sun-drenched leaves of maple.

8 comments:

  1. Gerry,
    This is so beautiful. Perfect reading for a slow-start Sunday.

    You are a master with words.

    Eileen

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  2. This is like a pointilist painting, but using words. I get summer versus winter, outside versus in, sun versus rain, company versus solitude, each overprinted one on the other like a film strip which has many exposures on top of each other... The colours are cool, slightly faded, and sad...

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  3. You write like the great ones say... TS Eliot

    Great poem
    D.

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  4. I like "circus of coffee" and any piece that features the word "smooch".

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  5. Ahhh, I always get so excited when I see you've written something!!!!!

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  6. @Eileen: THx. Just messing around.

    @jinksy: duality, heh? interesting. life is sorrow says the Buddha so I'm not sure why I laugh all day. but I do. cheers, my dear Jinksy.

    @Dulce: Please dear, I'm a minor (at best). Ha! Appreciate the read, though. Much obliged.

    @wiilow: thx. smooch!

    @Autumn: Thank you. Means a lot. Glad you're getting something out of this.

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  7. Love this poem, especially the alliteration in "blanched the bleached slats of blue-gray siding" and I love all of the nature imagery and the way you weave it seamlessly with this narrative voice.

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  8. @Chris: Glad you enjoyed. The words should make music in poetry, dontcha think? cheers.

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Yes?