Contributor Series 6: A Currency of Words
Licorice Cement: Revisited
By Alice Shapiro
Once I wrote nonsense
jabberwocky, jargon, words
juxtaposed to make a poem.
When they awarded me
thirty pieces of silver
I tried to fake it again.
Failing
I now offer up that anomaly
one rare stab at
language, rhythm
an awkward push
to make words say
what they do not mean
an infant plan to have the world
conform to chaos.
Licorice cement
is hanging past daffodil
stovepipes.
On rice-cracker books
are bands rugging shoes,
and postcard perfumes
leafing glasses.
I stamp window bricks
i
n snowcones.
n snowcones.
Air comes beyond
Eucalyptus coffins,
and brushes
broom on.*
Always somewhat odd
I reminisce on the power of the tongue
and look to a future
when an equally odd youth will pen
a sequel verse I could not birth.
*from Poetry Connoisseur ©1985, Alice Shapiro
A-head (May 2010), published as part of Contributor Series 5: Dramatis Personae, was Alice Shapiro’s most recent poem to appear at vox poetica in January 2010.
This poem enveloped an improve. 🙂
Belly laugh, Jeanette! Thanks.
🙂 I meant to say IMPROV
What fun, Alice!
This is terrific!
Thanks Bobbie and Sarah! It was a privilege to be part of this series.