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Best Poems From
LAURENCE OVERMIRE
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385.
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Still Life
The masters all painted
Baskets of fruit
Why?
What is it about fruit
That demanded such passionate expression?
Was there a lucrative market of fruit lovers to exploit?
Personally
Fruit doesn't bake my cake if you know what I mean.
Now
Naked babes in the grass
That
I can understand
But apples on a dish?
What is it they're trying to say?
Do they tempt us like Eve
'Buy the apple painting, Maude, big, delicious, juicy, red apples on a
porcelain white dish. Buy it, buy it, buy'
Whisper the artist's serpent strokes.
Or maybe
'Twas some deep psychological need
That compelled the depiction of
Fruit.
There they sit
Inert
In a bowl, or basket or dish.
The artist as pear.
Brimming life
Immobile.
Contained within-
A precious seed
Waiting...
(Previously published in Art Villa, Aug.1999)
Laurence Overmire
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386.
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Still Life With Knife
I’d like to peel myself
like an apple
discard that thin skin
bruised so easily,
cut out the hollows
where worms have dug their holes,
carefully remove the seeds
clutched tight within the core,
plant them in some new place
warm and sunny,
rich soil and plenty of water
where thirsty roots can finally take hold.
Perhaps then
my branches opening to the sky
I could, with outstretched limb
bring from bud to blossom
that rarest of fruit
pure, sweet, unblemished
the incomparable red
delicious.
Laurence Overmire
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387.
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Straightjacket Heart (senryu)
Straightjacket heart
lips pressed against a window
freedom is the dream
Laurence Overmire
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388.
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Strangers in Paradise
There is no such thing as a
Functional Family
is there?
If you met one
you’d probably think they were
Crazy.
(Previously published in The Short North Gazette, Feb 2003)
Laurence Overmire
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