Poetry

Atlas, Behind the Theatre

dumpster, Hummingbird Centre

published in TOK 3 (2008)

Atlas sits on the loading dock
filled with tatters, stocky, broken,
open topped, the trash within
all that's known of business past.

Atlas greets the daily traffic
seething past the matinées
saying happiness can be dreamed
after stage and scene are trashed.

Atlas peels from red to brown,
feeds the rats around his bed,
sends to ground a plaster dream
shrouded wet in greasy canvas.

Atlas never shows the junk
when heavies, black-clad, junk the shows,
but, loaded with dust and tragic ends,
a dumpster holds the heavens, cracked.