Friday, July 8, 2016

Robert Verdon, #199, Dance Here

thoughts stupid as stagnant water
under the grey jowls of the day
as the clock hands garrote it
a carmine rose dying
memory crying out for it
the dance of the rose
in a world rough and ready as a bowling alley
itself resonant with the dance of bowler, ball, tenpins;
and the breathless meeting at the railway station,
the note telling us you are alive,
and other messages of deliverance:
the memories we have
when we cannot repeat their substance
are worse than dementia,
historical dementia being the worst of all
as the clock hands are replaced by prison numbers,
but as grey age murders us it turns green
so long as there are messages to hand on
and dancing roses to die for.

2 comments:

  1. I like how you wrote this is as pessimistic and optimistic, simultaneously. And it works beautifully.

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  2. thanks, wasn't sure of it actually worked — thought it might need more work actually, but then I always feel that

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