Monday, August 1, 2022

Mary Jo Bang

 Cover for The Bride of E

Three Trees

The aqua green goes with the pink 
in a way no one knows what will happen. 
Every step is a dangerous taking. 
Amazing the time span of a trunk 
(a door opens in it and suddenly, 
someone is asking how this came to be). 
The green curtain is a pressed chime 
which when rung rings in a dogwood 
white as if a storm were approaching 
its green extreme. 
Brick crumbles into living pond particle 
while a bent hook holds back 
the last dissolve. 
An uneasy leap over a sharky sea. 
Gravity plays its little emotive role. 
It's Elm Street all over 
again, ragged walkways lead to Toon Town. 
Hello kids. Hello Jimmy Neutron. 
The blanket rises, and under it, 
a fetishistic pompadour 
green, greener and paler than bluebird. 
But hush, the nuclear power plant 
is about to blow unless 
Jimmy can locate the elusive button. 
A siren and standing-by fire truck. 
It looks like a lost cause until presto, 
a messenger. A racketing aside. 
The day is dragged here and there but still 
can't be saved. BAM. Immediately 
the next second clicks into the skyscape 
apocalypse. In the dust, a celluloid woman 
mows a multilayered lawn. 
The arch overhead reads, O Art 
Still Has Truth Take Refuge. Where? There. 
There, there, says someone.

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