Mark Thalman

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Selected Poems

Voyager Photograph

Attending Church, Age 3

The Ants

Monsieur Pedreau's Garden

Short Term Memory Loss

The Peasant Dance

Barn Owl in Churchyard

Venice by Early Morning

Opening the Cabin

Winter Storm

Hanging Up the Spurs

Oregon Rain

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THE PEASANT DANCE
                               
                                                                                                 A Brueghel Painting
                                                                       
                                                                        You can not see me.
                                                                        I am standing behind the man
                                                                        who is painting a festival
                                                                        of villagers
                                                                        that have rigor mortis
                                                                        from lifting their feet
                                                                        in the same position
                                                                        and may stay rigid
                                                                        for hundreds of years.

                                                                        Still wondering
                                                                        when they might
                                                                        stop dancing, the villagers
                                                                        look apprehensive
                                                                        as a first kiss
                                                                        the stable boy
                                                                        is trying to give
                                                                        his sweetheart.
                                                                                                  
                                                                        Everyone is tired
                                                                        of the repetitious
                                                                        farmer playing
                                                                        a drunken bagpipe tune,
                                                                        but are polite
                                                                        and do not show
                                                                        their disgust.
                                                                        
                                                                        Two drinkers quarrel
                                                                        finding out they have
                                                                        slept with each other’s wife.
                                                                        The first stretches both arms out
                                                                        asking forgiveness.  The second
                                                                        raises one hand
                                                                        blessing him.  For their sin,
                                                                        the wives have shrunken
                                                                        to the size of dwarfs.
                                                                        The women are smaller
                                                                        than the table.  In an hour,
                                                                        they will completely disappear.
                                                                       
                                                                        
                                                                       
                                                                       "The Peasant Dance" was published in CutBank.



 

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