D Rodman Walker

 

 

Gallery

 

Dad and Mom slipped off the wall,

their lifeless still-lives

knocked off the woven cubicle wall,

colored thumb-tacks suicidal

on their sides on the imitation Formica desktop.

 

You see, I keep five Modigliani

cutouts on my office wall,

the young woman peachy and jazzy in her smock,

the older man next to his tan bottle,

 

the young artist in black, tie loosely drawn,

the lovely formal woman, hair drawn up against

her pale pink complexion, and lastly, the flushed

young mother and child against the blue cupboard.

 

I share the portrait of my Mom and Daughter,

as they share the short bangs,

the bright smile, the elbow drawn up to the edge of the

chair. And my Father sits impatiently next to

his bottle, stiff arms pressing against his legs

 

as if awaiting penance from the pastor. My

brother is the young artist, soft inquisitive

eye loafing about in front of the brown doorframe.

My wife is the one with the pale complexion,

beige eyes anticipating more trouble from her sick spouse.

 

And my Sister holds the baby, her

loving son - so confused and enraged at birth

that the days seem to start in the middle,

and one day works towards morning,

the next towards night. But of the five

 

only two fell down while I was away,

my Father’s, probably just intoxicated enough

to slide down off the thumb tack or bored so sweetly

by the pastor that it drifted to sleep on

 

my desk. The last to fall was my Mother,

my Daughter, one who left all too soon

and returned to me through my Wife’s womb,

smiling smartly as she whispers, "I’m falling".

D Rodman Walker* is a La Salle College graduate and MFA graduate from Sarah Lawrence College. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The South Carolina Review and the Berkeley Poetry Review and others. His first chapbook Feldspar’s Other was put out by The Irish Pig Press and his second, Both Ends of a Life was accepted for publication by The Phoenix Press.

Beauty for Ashes Poetry Review ©1996-2001

©A Creative Ash Publication 2001

Isaiah 61:1-3

Thank you for visitin