by Shloka Shankar
following steps
for Mabel
phantom pantoum after Bernadette Peters on The Muppet Show
Your only photo of youth
burns to smoke as fast as
the brush; the one & only
disappears one million miles
away behind a door
into the woods of autumn’s possession.
Like scattered penny thoughts,
fragile pools of painted dots
fall in a vale of tears as
vein-dead-ends crunch into mazes
of soles, capturing curious leaves’
artistic first impression.
Two million miles down,
behind the door, you fall;
as woods’ harvest obsession,
spells of wandering cinders,
like silent wishes of a breeze,
are unexpectedly cast.
Maze to solve leaves the artist
captive, curious of vane, bone-
crushing second impressions.
Mortal copper-coil trap is set to
snap on the rodent, the muse’s
tale of fairness, last wishes, as
breeze embers breathe.
Spells of silent wondering are unpredictably cast.
Time travels through making you
think a name,
young again, believing what you’re told—
fairy-tale coil-trap’s copper is set to snap
on the muse, the rodent, with morals that last
at home.
On range,
in a dream, peach dusk
dips into bottle of spirit
glowing marigold.
Time travels through
making you, to name a thing,
old,
believing you must be
old, raking skeleton bones
& stacking chopped timber
in solitudes of pinhole camera.
At home, in range, two dreams
of dusk, dip like a bottle. Peachy
spirit of merry gold, your empty-
pocket tongue calls out
God
Madonna / Oprah / Liza / Yoda / Mustafa / Etcetera /
alone, raking skeleton leaves,
& chopping, then assembling wd.
In pinhole camera,
fallen penny thoughts
scatter,
painting pools
of dainty dots which
veil empty pockets. Torn
tongue out, you say, aahh
Allahh, Buddahh, Gahhd,
Jehovahh, Krishnahh, Etceteraaaahhhh…
as youth’s canvas burns up
to smolder with the brush.
Your one & only disappeared.
Nicolette Teixeira is a Luso-American clown of Fall River, MA, now living in NY, NY. More on this work is archived at muppoems.com.
Shloka Shankar is a poet and self-taught visual artist from Bangalore, India. She enjoys experimenting with Japanese short-forms and myriad found poetry techniques alike. A Best of the Net nominee and award-winning haiku poet, her poems have recently appeared in ubu., The Purposeful Mayonnaise, Blo͞o Outlier Journal, Angel Rust, and Heron Tree. Shloka is the Founding Editor of the literary & arts journal Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. Her microchap, Points of Arrival, is forthcoming from the Origami Poems Project. Website: www.shlokashankar.com