Lenny Wept

image borrowed from bing

Lenny Wept

My page was too white

My ink was too thin

The day wouldn’t write

What the night penciled in.

--Leonard Cohen

I am moved by broken flower stems, by

the patina pock-marking all the iron that

surrounds us, abandoned machinery, chipped

and bent gears lying in fat precarious piles

in dark corners, wood beautifully aged by weather

on those east/west walls facing direct sunlight,

hand-hewn rail fences twisted like arthritic limbs,

with deep verdant moss adorning tops & corners;

but my mere words lack any substantial bite;

my page was too white. 

I do capture images with my mechanical lens

that later might arouse my slumbering poetics;

classic hood ornaments, jets, rockets, & archers,

toothy or snarling chrome grilles, wide white wall

tires, moon hubcaps, torn leather seat covers,

faded brand names on some old cans of tin, 

Buck Rogers, Howdy Doody, & Gene Autry

action toys, and painted metal lunch boxes;

very hard to imprison with words meant to win;

my ink was too thin.

I love to stoop and peer into steel-ribbed culverts,

hoping to greet another pair of eyes in the shadows,

reading aloud the city and year that certain foundries

cast on manhole covers and fire hydrants, staring

lovingly at every kind of window and door, all different

styles, colors, materials; different sizes & height;

wandering the harbors, marveling at the thick ropes

that tether the ships & boats, while always searching

the motley skies for those wings of might

the day wouldn’t write.

Artist, performer, photographer, & poet--

all sweet monikers I proudly wear while

processing this marvelous world through

my personal filters, describing the tastes,

sharing the emotions, creating the tableaus

before revealing who actually was the assassin;

still pleased that others appear interested in

my unique views, perspective, & compositions,

while never fearing the specter of oblivion--

what the night penciled in.

Glenn Buttkus

May 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets FFA

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