Posted by quequel on September 21, 2003 at 16:28:02:
There's something unexplainable about writing poetry at Barnes & Noble! Thought I'd share these.
The Man in the Corner
Shaking hands and patting backs
Eli’s booming voice announces each name
With the rowdy intimacy of a favorite uncle.
Making the rounds in his ruby cufflinks.
No one knows why he never married.
He’s been a witness to the bonding
Of every glowing bride and sweating groom in Bayou Ridge.
His twenty-dollar cards are expected at confirmations.
His golf is atrocious, but he calls across the green
Every Saturday morning to Mayor Thornhill
Or young Rockefeller, who he knows by name.
But tonight, as he pounds me on the back
And moves on to the next tuxedo, I catch a flash of the man inside,
Sitting in the corner shadows, chin tilted at the world,
Trying to catch an eye, but not meeting glances.
He tweeks his tie and stands up straighter,
Beaming once again.
Eternally undernoticed.
9/10/03
Ceiling in the Floor
Mrs. Oglebottom’s husband
(Poor old Topper, bless his soul)
Refused to leave a job undone
He worked from sun to setting sun
He slaved and worked and worked and slaved
Flinched not in summer and snow he braved
But every job he did
Was a pot without a lid
Mrs. Oglebottom wanted
Just one more thing, all her life
And could not lay a thought to rest
“The Jones’s,” she said, “have the best.”
She pined and whined and whined and pined
For painted shutters and gardens sublime
A fountain by the walk
So all the folks would talk
So Mrs. Oglebottom’s husband
(Poor old Topper, give him peace)
Designed a home so grandiose
That some, in whispers, called it gross
He sawed and nailed and nailed and sawed
And primly Madam hemmed and hawed
A little bit more flair
A wee more spiral on the stair
Mrs. Oglebottom longed for
Golden-tasseled Persian rugs
A mural painted on the ceiling
And Scarab knockers just like bugs
And silver this and crystal that
“No Topper, dear, that one’s too flat.”
Everything she saw
Had just one tiny flaw
Mrs. Oglebottom’s husband
Gave the ceiling one more touch
Madam nearly had a fit
The chandelier was off a bit
Go right, no left, no left, now right
A bit more right and he took flight
Now old Topper’s ceiling’s
Beneath the marble floor.
--9/10/2003