The Gargoyle

by Janet I. Buck

It's half-past two,
sunny as a shiny penny
rubbing pockets of the world.
A blind man wanders
with his stick through
carnivals of urban's teeth,
paper-clipping sound and sense.
Struggle in fortissimo;
every meal a rich dessert
in menus of this tragedy.
His guide will tell him
when to cross, lead him
down our sewer pipes
with pupiled pity for their scent.
Gargoyle nesting in the city,
plowing through attentive straw.
He feels the ground our luckiness
can touch and leave
without a set of firmer plans.

Focus in his fingertips like peeled
and fragrant ginger root.
His destiny reminding him
of all the sharper particles,
groping tentacles of sea,
where concentration cannot rest.
Where tactile isn't
summer hammocks
blowing in a sugared wind,
but cassocks nearer to a grave.
Where moments
don't decide themselves.
Where hearing is a hunting dog.
A victim of the buffeting:
a little closer to the conch
than normal's ease will ever be.

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Magazine.com, CrossConnect, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Kimera, The Rose & Thorn, 2River View, Southern Ocean Review, Disquieting Muses, Urban Spaghetti, Perihelion, Mind Fire, Born Magazine, pif, 3rd Muse, Verse Libre Quarterly, Big Bridge, pith and hundreds of journals world-wide. Buck was one of U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. In January 2001, Art Villa Records released Janet's first audio CD of poetry and music called Before the Rose. It is available at: http://www.artvilla.com/shopping/poetry/rose.htm To hear a sample from the CD, go to: http://www.artvilla.com/mp3/umbrellas.mp3.
Note: Featured author in January 2001
E-mail: JBuck22874@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
Poems: "The Orphan", "Caught in Lesser Tragedies", "The Broken Promise", "The Gargoyle", "The Going", "The Bag Lady", "Rushing Toward Entelechy", "The Paralyzed Apocalypse", "Frozen Sonnets", "New York, New York", "Live on CNN", "America Under Siege", "Gutter Balls"
Links: Hot Links: Janet I. Buck, Janet's Latest Interview, Desideratum's Doggie Dish, Author's Den, Active Amp.org—Features Janet I. Buck, Poetry Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck, The Part-time Postmodernist (August 2000), San Francisco Salvo, Moongate: Janet I. Buck, Offcourse, The October Country , Cafe Society: Poetry Life & Times, Kookamonga Square, The Adirondack Review , janetbuck.com, Funky Dog Publishing—Janet Buck's Strawberry Nipples, Athens Avenue—Janet I. Buck, One World-One Heart Exhibit , Ygdrasil: Issue 9 September 2000