Fantasmagoria Poem by Joshua C. Whiting

A wingless bird flew into the
Daylight of night
A blind man shading his eyes
Watched it fall in flight

A stilled voice hoarsely cried
Out to the wilderness
Heard only by echoes
Repeating the emptiness

A screaming soul torn from
Depths of eternity
Took one look at the world
And plunged into the sea

A girl’s silent mouth sending
Forth words soft and low
A deaf man heard them
Sneaking away on tip-toe

A starving man spewed up
A belly of gobbled bread
When he found his appetite
Had been ten years dead

A legless dancer swirled and
Kicked her dress up high
A voiceless mute gasped
And screamed a delightful sigh

A horrified God cursed in
A blasphemous rage
At religion dancing with
The Devil in his cage

A sheep leading human beings
To the slaughter
A dollar’s worth of entrails
Sold for a quarter

A laughing hyena sobbing
Sadly and loud
Because happiness decided
To wear a shroud

A mortician sought refuge in
A darkened cave
Because a dead man refused
To stay in his grave

A blacksmith forging sound
With ore silvered metals
Mined from noise of dew-drops
Falling on rose petals

A mermaid cooking
For the man in the moon
Feeds him moss sea-shells
From an oyster spoon

Hope and Faith clinging
Desperately to Pity
Given to them by their
Sweet sister Charity

And me, frantically writing this
In the air
Sit calmly atop the step
Of a stepless stair