Mannequin

A Poem by Giorgio Veneto

A nine-syllable surreal poem about a marionette.

You were an amorous obsession,
in desert burning, a fresh canteen
males' nightly fantasy digression,
- my instant coffee's strong coffee bean.

Admired was your exquisite posture,
emptiness of my manly sorrow,
for your inaccessible stature,
- my expending charm, I did borrow.

Inside your glass, apathy's shadows,
abated hopes, while raindrops suspend
my stance reminding stable scarecrows,
- of sprawling charades that fields attend.

How much I loved that hangman's feeling,
when on safe walk stood, wretched and abject,
while speechless shadows crossed sky's ceiling,
- the downpour soaking, naught to reject.

Vain uppish stance, fairly adjacent,
within arm's grasp silently abstruse,
refrained from secular indulgence,
my head acquired an angle obtuse.

In air strung the notes of a jazz band.
thoughtless I leaned on a red phone booth,
I loved your eternally raised hand,
- and altruistic smiling white tooth...