Sanskrit or Greek

The poem begins
with an off-the-shelf thought
that wishes to be seen
from a different point of view,
that turns tradition on its head,
that bends light while stretching it
into colors upon the landscape.

In the second verse,
I ask the thought to perform
the Peppermint Twist
or a Waltz or some break dancing moves.

In the third verse
a conversation with Magritte or Dali
should be summoned via seance
with a medium, a large and a small,
so we may present the dreams
the thought never aspired to attain
to exceed the mundane.

And so the shaping goes, the growing,
the tweaking, the malleable manipulation
of fact and metaphor and allusion
and other devises taken from
medieval torture chambers for getting at the truth.

The poem ends
with a period mostly.
Some conventions are followed
to provide a familiar structure
in the delivery system—
it would not benefit many
if I created the perfect poem
only to perform it in Sanskrit or Greek.

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copyright © 2019 Kenneth P. Gurney