2 September 2002 | Vol. 2, No. 3
A Bruegel in Vienna for a Friend in Kiev
Nothing reluctant, the singing,
the kissing, the blind
love in rhythm,
in sync with
ox-bladder bagpipe.
It's Oktoberfest, everyone hopped up.
The oak in the foreground still holds on
to leaves, but a fallen jug handle foreshadows
the next day. Two children
offer each other the purity of open,
empty hands. The church at road's end
in admiration of its harvest of soles. The best
peasant blood dances disregarding the obvious
proximity to skeletal remains,
& particles of earth rising
before us too fine for us
to see.
About the author:
Robert Gibbons is the author of three full-length books of prose poems. New work is online in Istanbul Literature Review and Jacket, and is forthcoming in Ars Interpres (Sweden) and Wheelhouse. He is Poetry and Fiction Editor of Janus Head.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Robert Gibbons at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 2, No. 3, where "A Bruegel in Vienna for a Friend in Kiev" ran on September 2, 2002. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
