Robert Gibbons
UNDER THE SPELL OF THE BALLERINA
I worked up a good sweat walking across town from the MFA
to North Station, when a gust of air rushed down the outdoor
corridor. Fresh at first, like an Atlantic, amniotic memory,
in the distance guys in hard hats emerged from the tunnel,
along with the smell of refuse, blood, the dead. I continued
on under the spell of Degas' ballerina with crossed arms, her Zen elbows
at rest, & Walter Benjamin's fascination with the ability
of objects to withstand the gaze. At home the low, gentle timbre
of your voice fleshed out the next second, to the full.
Location: Scituate, Massachusettes Email: r.gibbons@neu.edu Publications: Conspire, The Drunken Boat, Exquisite Corpse, The Fox in the Snow, Gargoyle Daily, The Literary Review, pith... Chapbooks: Ardors; Lover, Is This Exile?; OF DC
