The Dumbwaiter

Here she is, anything
can be asked of her
sea gravel underfoot.
Behind a guillotine before
the soda jerk opens it
to a glass vegetable spread
with cutlass smiles,
her mime complexion
in this 8mm photograph
to be still life beauty
before a night of trekking
because she only wants
to escape our plan
to move away from a Lady in a Lake
through dumb waiter
lobbies filled with hands
crawling to catch her
spilling voodoo guitar hands
The bug carnies sing
the same song,
but different as a melody
polished
by children with cancer,
or to brush
her filament wings as angel flutes
which can break the sound mirror
with a cough;
to share a tune
with black space,
and kinless troubadours
to light a wick
over their tents
so they can run back
with flashlights.

John Thomas Allen wants to be a cat man instead of a cat lady, thus engendering a gender revolution. He likes Christian tarot, JK Huysman’s, and Charles Wright. He’s been in Arsenic Lobster Journal, Sein Und Werden, and Grey Sparrow Journal.