Lynne Thompson (guest writer)
California
Note from the editors: We’re excited to share this poem by Lynne Thompson, the 2021–2022 Los Angeles Poet Laureate. We’re grateful for her years of support and inspiration at our events. This poem was published in Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007).
The Poet, Applying For a Job, Cites Her Previous Experience
as a witness. Passionate secret.
Collection of colors, rubbish,
pins, puddles, buttons, paper,
detritus to scrape, to paint,
to polish. Conjurer of mummery
and feral thought. Flotilla
of aberrations. Eccentric drop
of ink. Gnome on a trapeze.
Inclination. Hand drum. Obligato.
Vertigoed butterfly. Professional
sphinx. Silence. Sizzling arrow.