Bit of brown paper, a poem

Bit of brown paper
by mike marcellino

Trois chanson d'amour de partie

Prisoners,
not a long time.
Prisoners,
not a long time.
Bit of brown paper.

Prisoners,
not a long time.
Prisoners,
not a long time.
Bit of brown paper.

Prisoners,
that won’t be confined,
defined.
Prisoners,
that won’t be confined,
defined.

Prisoners,
that won’t be contained
by love,
life,
war,
death.
Ready
to break
loose
at a moment’s notice.

Prisoners,
that won’t be contained
by love,
life,
war,
death.
Ready
to break
loose
at a moment’s notice.

Prisoners,
that don’t say
‘That’s ok, never mind.’
Prisoners,
that don’t say
‘That’s ok, never mind.’

Prisoners,
as Lincoln at Gettysburg -
‘As the sculptor
must dream the statue
prisoned
in the marble,”

Prisoners,
‘As the musician dreams a song.
so he who writes
must have a vision
of his finished work
before he touches to begin it,
a medium more elastic.
more vivid,
more powerful than any other,’
she writes, Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews,
in her “Perfect Tribute”
to the man with ‘the deep-lined face
bent over Seward’s bit of brown paper.’

Prisoners,
wearing
four hats at a time,
not a long time,
not a long time.

Prisoners,
not a long time.
Prisoners,
not a long time.
Bit of brown paper.


Bit of brown paper copyright mike marcellino 2009