Puppet X,22 Poem by Jerry Ratch

22



And so
good-bye to flowers
Good-bye to the purple iris
Considerations
of time and pansies

afternoon
glass (4 pm)
hillside...

Of life
Of what the desolate imagination
makes of it

Of what is
to come
for someone in this room

Because
you'll forget who you are
Who you were
or wanted to be

This is going to
make me dance

Your obnoxious soul
Pestering twilight
with its presence…

Somebody put a head on the body
and an arm, and a leg
and stuck it all back together again

Then it sat up and said, 'Hello...'

Ah, the sweet cardboard
As it's never been