March 23, 2004
I should be vacuuming, doing the dishes, changing the sheets, folding the laundry. Instead, this:
still life with lunch
I eat my baguette and brie
contemplating a miniature collection
of my life’s best metaphors,
nested now into a frame of small squares
set off-center in an expanse
of off-white wall--
spiny shells and chunks of stones
bought and stolen from gritty beaches
and hallowed grounds;
two miniature totem poles,
stacks of toothy masks eternally
divining and defying;
the ceramic face of a serene Kwan Yin,
open hands inserted
in stiff maternal blessing;
a pious, pewtered St. Anthony,
haloed, holding the lost Child,
on the lookout for lost keys;
a feather, probably a duck’s
because a turkey’s was too big to fit,
and every altar needs a feather;
a brass double dorje, the mate
of the Tibetan bell I ring
in moments of turning
toward thoughts of a box-less future;
and, finally, a crumbling wine bottle cork
on which someone I can't
remember had printed
in balky blue ballpoint:
“Conundrum.”
© Elaine Frankonis 3/23/04
first draft
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Old Comments (2)
Lindsay on 24 Mar 2004
I love your poetry. You're good at choosing titles too, which is something I've struggled with for a long time. I hate having to name my poems.
dzwonki polifoniczne on 13 Jun 2004
Hmmmmm interesting !!!