Literary event
June 16, 2008
Literary event
A poetry reading
to be exact
as doubtless poetry should be.
Setting: mid-afternoon
auspiciously astraddle
the local heroes’ pivotal
football contest.
a decent
dowdy public parlor
funeral home chairs arrayed
with axial exactness
apologies for buttsprung seats.
Event: slow settling in
creaks and coughs on hold
the ritual unfolds.
Litanous recognitions
of network stalwarts delivering
this rally of dutifilled appreciators
chapbooks at the ready
to receive an authentic voice.
Before the end
lo
poetry indeed.
A wise guy breeze
used to taking shortcuts
slips through uninvited
palpating damp foreheads
for signs of resident life
wabbling whole walls’ worth
of important portraits
sober oils ineffectual
against the drafts of disregard.
Behind us all unseen
one aleatory mockingbird
importunes and taunts
needing only hint
at his virtuouso repertoire
of borrowed authenticity
to intimate the purity
of being’s constant joy
in unrestrained immediacy.
Chuck Merrill
