The Finger Puppets in the Attic Dollhouse

Reibetanz, John (1944 - 0)

1If they, more petite

2 than the mice whose flittings

3 have pillaged their robes' sparkled trim,

4stood tiptoe

5 on the plumped felt tops

6 of their thimble-sized footstools

7to scrutinize

8 the worn fabric

9 of this room's blue distances,

10would they locate

11 the source of lightning bolts

12 in our faces' wrinkled pleats

13and construe the stars'

14 dance from the tattered

15 embroidery of our steps,

16or find in our seamless

17 unravelling years

18 the tissue of apocalypse?

Publication Notes

Mining for Sun (London, Ontario: Brick Books, 2000): 25.

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire