Jack Powers,
in the form of an urn
all dark and wonder colored
which somehow still contained
his ashes,
fell upon the stage floor
and then his portrait
seemingly in accord
escaped its fastener
on the draped back drop
and thumped that horrible
sound a picture frame
makes when it falls
but also did not break
and both urn and picture
were quickly returned
to their places of honor
maybe even glory
all in the midst of Margaret
who so loyal through his illness
commented on how
he was like a father to her
(and us all?)
and us all.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.