A Few More Fold-out Postcard Sonnets - 5/30

Here’s the next sonnet in the Fold-Out Postcard Sonnet sequence. Not much to say about this one except that, as I mentioned in the first post about this sequence of poems (which were written at this time of year in 1996), state names are “spelled” as abbreviations but pronounced as the state—TX for Texas (not “T for Texas” as Jimmie Rodgers would have it) & VT for Vermont in this particular poem.

In other news: I’ll be playing my monthly craft fair/farmer’s market gig in Council today from late morning until early afternoon, & I’m looking forward to adding a few old standards to the set list: “It Had To Be You,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” & “Bye Bye Blues.” It’ll be a pretty eclectic batch of songs, ranging from the old Appalachian tune “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground” to the aforementioned standards, with lots of blues & old country in between. The weather? Fair & hot!

Be sure to drop in for Original Poetry Sunday tomorrow—in case you don’t know, Original Poetry Sunday was initiated by Sandra Leigh of the fabulous Amazing Voyages of the Turtle blog. More on this tomorrow. In the meantime—enjoy the following:


5/30


A cigarette drowns in a strawberry milkshake its
last words being Save the last dance for me as the
tumbleweeds waltz a Brahms waltz under a life
preserver orange TX sun May 1988

& Marlowe walks smack into the future into a
telephone booth misplaced in a spaghetti western an
unruly Rorsarch blot smearing the western horizon like
a down sleeping bag with egyptian dreams

But a few things are true at present a slice of
strawberry rhubarb pie drenched in melted vanilla
ice cream a dial tone chirping Waltzing Matilda

& Marlowe growing a little bit older as VT
sinks like a beer bottle in a stagnant beaver pond
whether or not Marlowe actually uses the phone

© John Hayes 1996-2009