"Masque/A
Breath of Fresh Insistence"
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
8/14/07 6:10 a.m. pdt
I sit motionless in the kingdom of satisfaction with a clown face
belying my present condition
showing a studied falseness to the throngs, laughing in the face of
derision
while the tears flow unevenly down the inside of the mask
Methods
to madness charted with a crooked straightedge
decrying the destinations and foiling all anticipated fulfillment
reaching with outstretched insanity, but never touching
as the mannered convolutions of existence revolve again
I move slowly
away from painful platitudes,
a singular diaspora disguised as pleasure,
no crowd of followers nor reverent acolytes appear
on the rocky roads of rambling righteousness
I glance
heavenwards at the glory of the cosmos
sliding the mask aside, bravely attempting
to curl the sides of my broken mouth into a smile
as the infinite jeremiads reverberate in sorrow
Cornered
in calamitous conundrums
Stifled with sullen sad serenades as always
the smile appears in an instant, and then fades quickly
as if to smirk at the depth of this dancing depression
Whirling
like a dervish with a purposeful fancy
asking questions which never breed answers
grasping the crumpled clown mask of delusion
while devils gape in studied starkness on the sidelines
At last
I rest, weary and forlorn
open to immediacy, living in the now
wiping away the tears, and bravely tossing
aside the mask which never fit properly anyway
I sit motionless
in the kingdom of satisfaction with a clown face
blowing in the wind at my feet,
away from troubling consequence
replacing false hope with a breath of fresh insistence
Poetry
2007
