Tuesday, September 7, 2010

1086. DOUBLED OVER

DOUBLED OVER...
With laughter, with pain, oh
why are they both the same?
I've got the workman here to my
side - his languishing manner of
painting aside, so wide with that
brush, so inviting, so restful, so
lush and so dreary. Are not they
each the same? He leaves his white
trail on woodwork and lattice and then
he takes his metal ladder and walks
off. I hear the Chevy van starting,
stuffed as it is with all those old
painter's rags. Another busy soul
taking another busy place.
-
And more! Mankind, they say, the
human race, is peopled with kingship
and kin and papers and grace -
green-shirted man, broom-carrier,
proto-dweller and lowland ape.
Doubled-over, using twigs as
tools, jabbing at tree trunks for bugs,
hiding out in jabberwocky caves -
painting walls, after all, in one
thing or another.

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