The Escape
Oh, Brueghel! I can’t stand
to look at you, these days.
All those primary colors–
yellow skirts fighting with
blue shirts over red hose.
Put the party to rest.
Let the muscles relax.
Let me go to the meadow,
the woods, the fields,
away from the courtyard
overflowing with all of you.
No, I want to sit,
leave the dance
to the very young,
to the strong.
Let the bodies
meet the bodies
that want the flesh.
I want the spirit–
just for now.
Just this evening.
Let me fast
or drink plain water.
Let me grow thin.
Silence the steel guitar.
Hush your voice.
Still. Let me sit still.
This life presses in.
Oh, Brueghel.
A different time.
Youth, perhaps.
Or maybe, a time
when stillness
and silence
weren’t so hard to find.
I can’t look at you now.
Daily Prompt: “First, find a poem in a book or magazine (ideally one you are not familiar with). Use a piece of paper to cover over everything but the last line. Now write a line of your own that completes the thought of that single line you can see, or otherwise responds to it. Now move your piece of paper up to uncover the second-to-last line of your source poem, and write the second line of your new poem to complete/respond to this second-to-last line. Keep going, uncovering and writing, until you get to the first line of your source poem, which you will complete/respond to as the last line of your new poem,” from the Na/GloPoWriMo site.
Author’s note: My source poem, chosen at random from an anthology, was William Carlos Williams’ The Dance. (You can hear him read it at the link!) At home, we’re approaching the tail end of a kitchen remodel, so I’m a bit frazzled, and the idea of any more people and any more noise–even if they’re represented on canvas or in a poem about a painting–is a bit too much!
Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology 