DEMON runs out onto the stage.
SOOTY motes trail unseen from scarlet
SCARF. He smiles, charms, the sardonic
EMCEE: let the crowd’s fears do the work.
Category: ohthatwright
Job Application
IDLER in the lot kicks weeds in pavements cracks,
BELCH of smoke from mill stacks reminds: he must apply, yet
VIVID dreams of different work, of creative venture,
TEASE at his resolve. Will he go home not having tried?
Prince of the Zero Sum
PAUSE–not likely, deliberation not priced in,
POUND, more his speed, he blusters for the win.
GLOAT, exactly his speed, prince of the zero sum.
EXALT himself he will, enslaved to his own drum.
Cancelled Debts
OWING more every day of spirit’s currency,
ARRAY of commissions, above all omissions:
SINGE of Eden’s sword reminds I should not be so.
DEBITs though: every one cancelled, my account alway over full.
Towering to the Eye
WOVEN to outshine Bayeux’s, tapestry resplendent with
OLIVE, indigo, goldenrod, vermillion, lilac, each thread a
PLANK in structure that towers to the eye. The work
OUTGOes cloth: fabric becomes theater, becomes cosmos.
Brutalism
CIVIC center, brutalist concrete slab.
SLAIN all attempt at grace or soaring flight,
CLING to what might have been, dream somehow you
SNUCK ornament or proportion into the design.
Child of the Times
PAGAN efflorescence: flesh, sub-gods, to which
FAITH, until yesterday a cohering hope, now mere accessory.
TIBIA, bearing load, yet below, blind to inky canvas self spell.
ROACH, scent rising, incense of current prayer, but as smoke knitting nothing together.
Dreams of Peacetime
PHASEs ripple back and forth as dream reality smoothes:
GRAND views of peaceful lands, raveled wars knit up, displaced by
WHIFF of everyday, wet leaves heaped on lawns. Appetites go benign: Say for
DONUT, something trivial to want that needs no ammunition.
Art’s Beginning
‘BEVEL out stone’s jagged edge’-thought which perhaps
BEGAT art’s momentum, smoothing sharpness from the hunt to other use.
BRAIN stitching connections beyond subsistence:
EARTH a stage, a mirror, a canvas, a manifold of signs.
Sleeper
AGENT in place, sembling normal life, chameleon morphed to background,
SNAKY intentions slumbering, no sly arguments about good and evil,
FRILLs of markets instead, keeping up with the Joneses on gadgets and cars.
BLEAT on, those fools around him. Agent waits and hides grim smile.