"the thread / of the vowels"

To the sparrows high on tree tops
fly on sparrows through the hedge stops
bristle up and fly away
black crest heads point this way gay

What to do for you is write you
into this a word for word zoo
I and you inside the thread
of the vowels sad and red"

Lisa Jarnot, from 'Harpersfield Song', in Joie De Vivre: Selected Poems 1992-2012 (City Lights: 2013)

Brevity Is . . . Wit (5)

"all the way to Vienna's aid"

Lend me a pen and I'll deal the same
I'll deal the sun I do.
She wears a pale bra singing la la la
salting a comb through her hair.
Hailing a cab with a hello lo lo
all the way to Vienna's aid,
and the nun with a comb over rents her a villa
a free zoo a lone den with no chains.

Hannah Silva, from 'Translations', in Forms of Protest (Penned in the Margins, 2013)

Brevity Is . . . Wit (4)

"a call to stone"

The poem wants to call the apples
orphaned but the call of art alone
is a call to stone.  There is still,
mister marble, a love for apples
and some will be gathered,
and some will fall to earth.

Andrew Bailey, from 'Stone Guitar', in Zeal (Enitharmon, 2012)

Brevity Is . . . Wit (3)