Charles A Perrone

 

On and Off the Shelf or Branch

 

Oh boy, oh my,

a clandestine natural document

has suddenly surfaced and lolled

and no sooner have the words

pierced the air and the stare

have they burst asunder like

a falling overripe persimmon

bereft of awe and wonder by

an ornery old orchard owner

disinclined to grant permission

to any colorful fruit to speak

even if well short of regally

or even simply to reek

of regenerative joy.

 

Sixty Years Apart

     In memoriam Haroldo de Campos (1929-2003)

 

The good medical doctor

resident of New Jersey

averred that

So much depended on

a glazed red wheelbarrow

And we came to believe it

 

Six decades later

a visiting doctor of letters

warned that if you didn't

apply ten coats of varnish

to the front door

the paint would burst

in the hot Texas sun

And his observation remains

virtually unnoticed

 

Respectable Thieves

While the timeless greed of respectable thieves
no less upsets you than a theft
bereft of motive or gain and
dinosaur imagination leaves you
no sooner gay than a voyage in space
unbounded by measure or days or
sounds of a tumbling border
might be the birth of a wicked new nation
without register of change
on your private map of things past,
 the charge of a simple phrase-
unselfish, perhaps sad or wrought in care-
and burst upon a field of encounter