OVER THE SKYLINE
… a crop-dusting plane that has been reworked
for sky-writing will draw a series of clouds over
the Manhattan skyline.
—The New York Times
Meanwhile an artist in Central Park
makes life-size drawings of trees.
They look exactly like the real ones.
Even the people who picnic beneath them
don’t notice the difference.
But are they really people
or someone else’s artwork?
Downtown, two little boys
erect a skyscraper
from Legos, so realistic
that pilots swerve to avoid it.
The pilots, of course,
are simply the word “pilots”
on a piece of yellowed paper.
The paper’s an image in your dreams.
And you—you are the child
your parents might have had
if they had ever met.
—from Rattle #26, Winter 2006
__________
Linda Bosson: “I am an alien who was abducted by humans. On my home planet, the poems are alive and we herd them like sheep. Once a year we sheer them, picking out the longest words, which we spin into thread. I have a sweater made entirely of words beginning with M.”
