“Lunchroom Lear,” by Peter Taylor

Apr 20th, 2020 | By | Category: Poetry

SCENE: A cafeteria

Rising, spoon-sceptred
Friends, entreat my words on burnished throne,
Cursing worms in salads tempest-tossed,
Scarce fit for puking nurses—am I alone?
My hapless band of brothers, courage lost?

Crown murmurs
Prithee, a toast with apples never shook
From golden bough or sun-unsweetened air,
O fie! the green-eyed dragon’s lecherous look,
And Jell-O strained through sieves of wonton care.

Food fight
Blow, ye blood-creamed faces! blow and crack!
The sulphurous-swooned incontinence of time!
And climb the upturned steeple’s broken back
To plunge ungrateful children into slime.

Enter ghosts
O Chaos, etu?—come, heaven’s keys—
It gapes, it gapes!
……………..Ah, Mephistopheles!

————

Peter Taylor has published two books and three chapbooks and his poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies internationally, including Amsterdam Quarterly, Antarctica Journal, Aperçus Literary Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, The Copperfield Review, Descant, Eunoia Review, The Font, Grain, The Linnet’s Wings, Pirene’s Fountain, Poetry Australia, StepAway Magazine, The Stray Branch, and Tipton Poetry Journal. He has worked as a printer and bookbinder, medical publisher and institute director and holds a Master of Arts degree in English Literature, specializing in Renaissance drama. He lives in Aurora, Canada.

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