Gedicht
Polly Clark
ELVIS THE PERFORMING OCTOPUS
ELVIS THE PERFORMING OCTOPUS
ELVIS THE PERFORMING OCTOPUS
hangs in the tank like a ruined balloon,an eight-armed suit sucked empty,
ushering the briefest whisper
across the surface, keeping
his slurred drift steady with an effort
massive as the ocean resisting the moon.
When the last technician,
whistling his own colourless tune,
splashes through the disinfectant tray,
one might see, had anyone been left to look,
Elvis, changing from spilt milk to tumbling blue,
pulsing with colour like a forest in sunlight.
Elvis does the full range, even the spinning top
that never quite worked out, as the striplight fizzes
and the flylamp cracks like a firework.
Elvis has the water applauding,
and the brooms, the draped cloths, the dripping tap,
might say that a story that ends in the wrong place
always ends like this —
fabulous in an empty room,
unravelled by the tender men in white,
laid out softly in the morning.
© 2005, Polly Clark
From: Take Me With You
Publisher: Bloodaxe, Tarset
Published with kind permission of the author and Bloodaxe.
From: Take Me With You
Publisher: Bloodaxe, Tarset
Gedichten
Gedichten van Polly Clark
Close
ELVIS THE PERFORMING OCTOPUS
hangs in the tank like a ruined balloon,an eight-armed suit sucked empty,
ushering the briefest whisper
across the surface, keeping
his slurred drift steady with an effort
massive as the ocean resisting the moon.
When the last technician,
whistling his own colourless tune,
splashes through the disinfectant tray,
one might see, had anyone been left to look,
Elvis, changing from spilt milk to tumbling blue,
pulsing with colour like a forest in sunlight.
Elvis does the full range, even the spinning top
that never quite worked out, as the striplight fizzes
and the flylamp cracks like a firework.
Elvis has the water applauding,
and the brooms, the draped cloths, the dripping tap,
might say that a story that ends in the wrong place
always ends like this —
fabulous in an empty room,
unravelled by the tender men in white,
laid out softly in the morning.
From: Take Me With You
Published with kind permission of the author and Bloodaxe.
ELVIS THE PERFORMING OCTOPUS
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère