Darwinian Ekphrastic @ Besthoff Sculpture Garden by Mark Petrie

Poetically Yours

The first cold front of fall combs the pond.
Casual palms. Moss limps and sways, drapes
like Mardi Gras beads, but gray, natural tint
of decay. And blazon Diana on her tippy- toes
readies an arrow. The morning moon. A blue jay
in the bush. Is there such a thing as an unnatural
squabble? Food and sex.             Look: plaster people
define and disrupt the scene with their creepy color-
lessness. Petite builds. Smoothed sockets & liberal
breasts. Some good acid might make them talk.
Make them trapped in carbonite a la Han Solo.
The Jedi arrives: an egret, a leck, I call her. All
legs and neck. A yogi, the whole leck on one leg,
her viper neck, head direct. Intent. Consumed
with consuming. Thin leck walking. Wading,
wading now in the thin algae. Scanning algae.
Two careful steps — Strike! – A miss. A wet face.
Every miss is a wet face, the chattering of eating
emptiness, eating regardless.

About Mark Petrie