ONE SIZE FITS ALL

 

 

The world was seeming shiny then,

fresh-squeezed and shellacked with

possibility. Then, in the wings of a moment,

 

a dog broke through it: this serenity you'd gathered

like ducks all around you. In a flash of cold water

all that brand new air deflating

from every blue breath of the not-so-here.

 

Go on, they said, though everyone knew

the psychic was winging it.

That, in the end, we'd leave

feeling hole-punched, self-revisionary

 

with a fits-all sized dread draping over

from another life, perhaps,

when you were meant to be a swan.

 

Until now, this has all been exposition.

There is a stranger walking towards you

and there's the chance we might merge

back into one imperfect body

 

on the blank side of the river,

where the future is headless

and shiny and new.

 

 

Poetry contest 2009

poetry

Last updated 265 days ago by Marc Paltrineri