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Friday 2 May 2014

Negative Development


.

Door to Hell #2: photo by Jim Rohan, 22 April 2014


Death avoidance.

A game like tag.
An everyday thing.
 

Haben einen schönen Tag.
Haben einen schönen Tod.


Old is a kind of plague.

The demented chef
could not remember her own recipe
between looking it up
and turning around
thus ruining the duck
she was cooking for the food editor.

At that point she threw in the apron
and went to the superfood
and microvitamin
cocktails.

Always the broken door
swinging on its hinges
in the ancient gate,
the rue in the not knowing
whether or not
the imperial warriors are out there
or
the dosage intakes
actually occurred
as prescribed.

And the sympathy
felt for the duck -- 

where, along the smoothie
greased path
leading to the next dim covert
in life's incredible journey
was there ever going to be
time for that?





Will today's photographers even get it? ;-): photo by Hans Söderstrom, 25 April 2014
 


Yerba Buena (San Francisco): photo by Jim Rohan, 27 April 2014

6 comments:

ACravan said...

I think this is one of the best pieces you've ever posted on BTP. I think it's the mixture of the concrete and the mysterious and the short and long lines. I'm particularly taken with the duck, the smoothie greased path and the dim covert. Curtis

Lally said...

a brilliant mashup of caustic/wise/succinct/poignant and emblematic of this age, and our age, Tom...

Jonathan Chant said...

Love this. Fine, fine poem.

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

A positively fine picture, this piece on negative development.

Mose23 said...

Sharp as anything. And the last stanza; how the little bits of good get lost.

I keep coming back and every time it surprises me.

TC said...

Many thanks all.

I'm with the duck.