Transparent Words - Poetry

 
THE LANDSCAPE OF ADMIRABLE QUALITIES
 
By Lee Ballentine
 
 
arrayed on the terraces above stupor
a choir rehearses the litany of audible malice
 
each note is rotten
counterpoint structured for indoctrination
 
across country other qualities may hold
here the workmen root them up for guests to admire
 
ashen-faced sopranos
are garbled, distant, hating echos
 
cynical baritones go directly to the morgue
strapped onto their steel gurneys
 
only the proud tenors survive
this landscape of admirable qualities
 
less a garden than a network
of baroque and empty palaces
 
 
 
 

Pg15

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