Everybody Be Cool

A table, grey laminated slab of medium-density fibreboard
scratched, stained, and lick-spit wiped down to leave faint tide marks
memories of an indifferent cloth

a plate, plain, pottery, though probably not porcelain
utilitarian, and piled with breakfast remains, a knife and fork akimbo
and a white paper napkin, roughly crumpled and dropped atop the lot
beneath the plate a bill

two coffee cups in deep saucers, white with two bands of burgundy,
the highest a little narrower, demarking the rim, neither is full
but both hold coffee

One centred beneath a dark blouse of indeterminate colour, maybe purple?
collarless to display a cheap necklace, cowboy boot hung from a chain
next to this one a stray fork, tongs face down

The other to the side of an apple brand pack of cigarettes,
and a subdued surf shirt, short sleeved
a ring, dark stone lozenge set in gold
a lit cigarette held carelessly

Stainless steel pot with hinged lid and tiny rounded handle holds milk
nearby a cluster
glass sugar dispenser, three quarters full, with a silvered spout for pouring
lidless bottle of ketchup, also three quarters full
small bowl containing pink packets of sweetener
a laminated menu upright on a small stand unseen but inferred
tall salt shaker, metal lid like a tiny minaret, angled glass sides
squat pepper pot, four faces and a well rounded top
like the bishop and the rook of some culinary chess set

lying next to them all is another napkin, opened, roughly folded and discarded

In the centre an ashtray, glass, full of filters

Then..

a small revolver.


Written as a Dinggedicht or Object Poem for the Poet's Place group

GROUP

The Poet's Place   (E) Poets can discuss, review, request reviews, etc. of their unique form of writing. #1937699 by Dave

This is a genre of poetry in which communication of mood or thought is made through acute observation of things and symbolic concentration. It was introduced in the early 1900s by Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke while studying impressionist paintings. It is closely connected to the imagist movement of the same time. It appears the difference may be in the subject of the observation. The dinggedicht appears to be more likely to observe man-made articles while the imagist tends to observe more natural surroundings. The story is told through the arrangement of inanimate objects or things from a distance or distracted point of view.