Robert M. Simmons
from Morning in Middleborough... (Poems 1991-2006)
Adonis on Everett Square
A panhandler with agile feet
quickly deserts the busy street,
while teens with strollers stop to gaze
at sights not seen on normal days,
and from his lofty point of view
Titian beholds this drama too.
We see him gazing o’er the top
of yon café and barber shop,
beyond the fortune teller’s lair,
toward the scene unfolding there.
Great clouds above in grandeur fly,
their pastel colors rising high
with shafts of sunlight surging through
beneath a dome of perfect blue,
and Cupid wisely waits aloof
upon the pawn shop’s shingled roof,
near a chariot poised for flight
conveyed by swans with feathers white.
At his quaint vinyl-clad abode
we spot a lad in exit mode.
While golden locks his head adorn,
colored and curled this very morn,
the diamond on his lobe prepares
his person for adoring stares.
Between his lips a cigarette
helps him to cope with any threat,
and tattoos on his chest and arms
contribute to his manly charms.
A maiden follows close behind
with passions of a fervent kind.
She begs him not to leave her side,
but he insists upon a ride:
his motorcycle has a lure
that all her warnings will not cure.
He mounts and starts his steel steed
as she continues still to plead.
Then like a comet upward bound,
all caution left upon the ground,
he hastens off with flames and smoke
to the delight of common folk,
but she who has been left behind
knows well that fate can be unkind
and pulls her hair in futile rage
while exiting the mortal stage.
Her chariot is seen to soar
swiftly above the liquor store.
That piercing sound that rubber makes
when man applies his auto brakes
is heard by all assembled there
to marvel at this famous pair.
How goes our lad? your guess is right;
it happened at the traffic light.
No point in adding more detail;
in homage let good taste prevail.
Above the ruckus Titian toils
painting the scene he sees in oils,
to grace a wall in Paris France,
betwixt his other works, perchance.
Once chaos clears on Everett square,
as milling crowds migrate elsewhere
and sirens shrill to silence fade,
the panhandler resumes his trade.
© 2003 by Robert M. Simmons
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Subjects: poems about, small town life, Venus and Adonis, Titian, mythology, poetry, poems
Adonis on Everett Square