by Rochelle Owens
Biting the apple
hungrily
the little wooden bambino
animates
his rosebud mouth an irregular shape
playing with blocks
the little wooden bambino
predicts
disease famine torture war
divination
a handful of earth flung down
beyond the edges
of a page
is a spider rendering light
texture and surface
an irregular shape
neither floral foliation
nor avian undulates
identity unknown
writing on the wall
the 24th letter of the alphabet
Xenophon and Xerxes
like a rapid chemical change
the deed neither good nor evil
a viper searching
a viper flinging itself searching
its barbed tail an innovation
the circumstance orbiting
orbiting the sun
like a whirling dervish
the little wooden bambino
an apple and a knife
paring the apple
without breaking the peel
spoiling three apples
throwing the parings
the letter X
the farmer’s wife
with a carving knife
in a bucolic setting
a philosopher begins devouring
a light meal sweet cakes
sake and thick tea
in her gut
a rapid chemical change
in a fat fold of her abdomen
sacred writ
in a fold of rock strata
destruction
the weight of the viper a thought
Rochelle Owens is the author of twenty books of poetry, plays, and fiction, the most recent of which are Solitary Workwoman, (Junction Press, 2011), Journey to Purity (Texture Press, 2009), and Plays by Rochelle Owens (Broadway Play Publishing, 2000). A pioneer in the experimental off-Broadway theatre movement and an internationally known innovative poet, she has received Village Voice Obie awards and honors from the New York Drama Critics Circle. Her plays have been presented worldwide and in festivals in Edinburgh, Avignon, Paris, and Berlin. Her play Futz, which is considered a classic of the American avant-garde theatre, was produced by Ellen Stewart at LaMama, directed by Tom O’Horgan and performed by the LaMama Troupe in 1967, and was made into a film in 1969. A French language production of Three Front was produced by France-Culture and broadcast on Radio France. She has been a participant in the Festival Franco-Anglais de Poésie, and has translated Liliane Atlan’s novel Les passants, The Passersby (Henry Holt, 1989). She has held fellowships from the NEA, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and numerous other foundations. She has taught at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Oklahoma and held residencies at Brown and Southwestern Louisiana State. This is Rochelle Owens' twenty-fifth New Verse News poem.
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