Letting Go Of

a one hundred fifty watt bulb

above a granite veneer table

creeping away from Bethlehem
yellow, never white

 

 

Lift

wind rattles night windows

tree limbs and bamboo

mimic

squeaky cartoon helium voices

 

 

You

you go up, that could be enough

you wake up, push against fuzzy dreams

 

you let up, get enough of that

you go up, push against that, get that

 

 

Hunger

Bartleby lost in marble façade offices

five story ads painted on buildings

 

boast of celluloid shirt collars

patent medicines, short shrift

 

soup kitchens, margarine and a slice

sparrows feast on his pocket crumbs

 

 

Marley’s Chain

Fin, sawbuck, double sawbuck, C note

piastre, pence, penny, peso

 

sure these bills and coins

muffled rattle of tin cans

 

buried beneath the morning

of every needful garden

 

 

Direction

X marks out spots across the repertory stage

painters, set decorators, make-up artists

crawl beneath the floorboards

 

out of sight, the audience used

creased playbills as fans

opt to patronize catwalk sponsors

 

the donated costumes, naphthalene

scented dressing rooms of

incipient companionship

[RK, 11/5/2020]