Capote's Voice
High as the moon,
that leaf-thin voice
a garden full of funny flowers
that bloomed and spun everything around,
mischievous elfin mews
ran up the little flagpole and hung
the world by a string,
a pig's squeal, blue sky full
of little sparrow trills, lovestruck mew
chasing God around the room,
barreling after some bit of truth,
mad soprano and parrot squawk,
alleycat, a thousand rebel yells ---
hear that whip, snap, slap, cackle, bop,
honky-tonk, circus calliope, cowboy hoot,
monkey babble, policewhistle, schoolboy cheer,
love's deathrattle, battlecry and a squirt of gin ---
every mystical sweet whine that ever caught the world's ear
off-guard and shook loose down deep inside
us all the implausible notion
that life was so queer and beautiful,
oh, how we all wish we could sound like that.
Ernest Slyman
http://www.geocities.com/soho/7514/
email: [log in to unmask]
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