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Certain Omens, Certain Signs

by dr_mandrill 

Posted: 07 February 2004
Word Count: 198


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Something’s up,
Not right at all.
The days are bleeding full of dreams
And queer juxtapositions.

Witness the rush-hour traffic stalled.
A giant hen, intransigent,
Blocks the way.

Observe: the children are late home from school.
They have all been caught,
Splay-limbed and flailing,
In a witch’s beard.
Elsewhere the adults are snared.
They have fallen by the wayside,
Distracted by the tophatted charlatan
With his cormorant.
The bird with the sinuous neck does tricks for treats.
It will eat from your hand, and once seen
Will not stand to be deserted.
Thus many adults are gone.

Better not try the doors-
Those that haven’t been bricked up
Now lead to the land of ghosts.
The windows too are treacherous;
The glass deceiving with empty moonscapes
Or tortuous, distorted reflections.
Houses in general are safer avoided:
Walls that chuckle, floorboards that writhe,
And eerie stretching corridors
Are all bad portents.

These are strange portents indeed.
Mysterious owls sit high on the lampposts
And seem to be influencing events. Who knows?
We will not find an answer tonight.
I suggest we find a place to sleep,
And try to dream of ticking clocks,
Of calm meadows and unflappable newsreaders.






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Comments by other Members



Sparrow_splitter at 16:30 on 07 February 2004  Report this post
A mad and frantic poem. Reminds me of prints found in crazy Victorian picture books. I especially like the tophatted charlatan with his cormorant. Inspired.

Sparrow

Fearless at 17:00 on 07 February 2004  Report this post
I liked the inspired imagery in the scenes you paint.
Keep writing and playing with your speedos.

fearless

roovacrag at 17:59 on 07 February 2004  Report this post
Between a dream,nightmare and a forboding.
Cogs in the brain turning over yet not functioning. Another good one.xxAlice

bjlangley at 18:04 on 07 February 2004  Report this post
Ah, the security of the unflappable newsreader, so dependable...

I liked this, it certainly does have a strange dreamlike quality.

All the best,

Ben

miffle at 22:18 on 07 February 2004  Report this post
I enjoyed the unexpected (!) imagery in this dm - it sort of seemed a comic spoof on the 'Nature is in a state of chaos something vile is about to happen' type speeches in Macbeth/ other Shakespeare plays - "These are strange portents indeed'...sounds very familiar (?!)... 'Mysterious owls sit high on the lampposts/ And seem to be influencing events' - I found it funny i.e. most of us have such a different way of 'reading' the world these days - those Elizabethan they must have been absolute bonkers!... miffle ;-)

<Added>

Meant - Elizabethans


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