Serrated Sky
Serrated Sky
by lisa munson
baseball and aardvarks
conducted by white hands
wearing French cuffs
in a pinstripe suit
how does bread rise
with slamming doors?
when do songs sung
to an out of tune piano
crack the corner of a gilt
picture frame
broken web of glass
veins toward
Van Gogh’s withered
sunflowers filled
with maple seeds
and me swinging
feet encased in white tights
and black leather ballet shoes
trees cannot sing in tune
when bird and train whistles
blow soundless
hot air
eggs come and go
physical plane dissects
heaven
eve’s destiny of spiritual enlightenment
trumps adam’s dust
in the end all is concentric circles
and Whitman lists
This dreamlike-rant poem lives up to its title and surely does have a sawlike edge with grating teeth snagging my dorment imagination like a wild bemusement park ride leaving my preconceptions tattered in an underwear model’s defection to nudity.
Right off the bat (pun intended)with ‘baseball’ and ‘aardvarks’ i knew this was gonna be a tad wacky but the poem keeps up the energy with imagery and quote-worthy sophistication. The questions posed to the reader thru the poem are abstractly supersilious–very right brained and engaging! The conducting of music; the rising of bread with slamming doors; pianos receiving the songs instead of giving them; trees singing when bird and train whistles blow–“eggs come and go”. What a topsy turvy way of looking at things from the creative spirit angle. Geometry plays factors into it all towards end: “physical plane dissects heaven” and I loved the last 4 lines: “eve’s destiny of spiritual enlightenment/trumps adam’s dust/ in the end all is concentric circles/ and Whitman lists”. For some reason i am attracted to the image and notion of concentric circles–don’t know why–perhaps the idea of interconnectedness. The mention of ‘Whitman lists’ i researched as being “Whitman’s ambitions as a poet, including a list of seven attributes written in a hand that one assumes is Whitman’s list of poetic virtues…” from some 1857 book. I’m not sure what is in that list but my meager knowledge of Whitman says he was a groundbreaker and he dared to be different as this poem surely does. Thx for sharing!