Tuesday, May 4, 2010

47) Black Ice

In the porcelain artist’s painting, the mistress
languishes behind a screen.

She receives her pain.
I sleep, eat, the egg slides over the pan,
the flyers say WE ARE SLAVES TO THE CAPITALISTS
or they say CARPET STEAMED 4 LESS;
it’s almost Christmas.
The light is gone by six o’clock.
I force narcissus in a bowl of shallow rocks.

On channel three, a teary Miss America is planting kisses
on the small bald heads at the children’s cancer ward.

Across the street, my neighbor’s yard blinks:

HAPPY! BIRTHDAY! BABY! JESUS!
Love rises
like a blister on the season.

---Ashley Capps

No comments:

Post a Comment