Prose Poem in the Form of Five Enigmatic Dreams
There is a road. It is a straight highway to the horizon. It looks like the letter T. There is a desert
without features. The only feature is a green road sign. It reads, LEAVING
There is an ashtray. A cigarette is burning in the ashtray. The ashtray is the same green as the
road sign. The smoke from the burning cigarette rises to the ceiling. It looks like the straight
highway. The ceiling looks like the horizon. Together they are the letter T.
There is a window. Through the window, there is a lawn. The lawn is the same green as the road
sign and the ashtray. A vertical black line bisects the window and the lawn. It looks like the
straight highway and the smoke. With the top of the window, they form the letter T.
This is the same window. Now the direction is reversed. There is an empty room. There is a
shadow on the floor. It is the shadow of the letter T.
There is a road. It is a straight highway to the horizon. It looks like the letter T. There is a desert
without features. The only feature is a green road sign. It reads, ENTERING
Photographer’s Note: I am fascinated by windows. This poem has wondrous circular motion.
Gaughin’s Armchair by Van Gogh
It is alive, as is the carpet,
and the candle on the seat instead of Gaugin,
and the gas jet on the wall instead of the sun.
All are alive.
Of course.
Everything he painted is alive.
Just look at the eyes of the self-portraits.
Death is alive in them.
Just look at The Mairie at Auvers.
It was painted thirteen days before he shot himself in the chest.
The house is alive.
The house is so alive it writhes in pain.
It howls.
Photographer’s Note: I absolutely love Gauguin and think about islands and bright colors when I think of him.
Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY Orange, J.R. Solonche has been publishing poems in magazines and anthologies (more than 400) since the early 70s. He is author of Beautiful Day (Deerbrook Editions), Won’t Be Long (Deerbrook Editions), Heart’s Content (chapbook from Five Oaks Press), Invisible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by Five Oaks Press), The Black Birch (Kelsay Books), I, Emily Dickinson & Other Found Poems (Deerbrook Editions), In Short Order (Kelsay Books), Tomorrow, Today & Yesterday (forthcoming from Deerbrook Editions), and coauthor of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). He lives in the Hudson Valley.