Doors Beneath Their Signs

by Larry Jordan
PoetryCircle
Second Place, November 2010
Judged by Paul Lisicky


The price for knowing God, is an apple,
she said with a line drawn by her foot,
over which she dared anyone to cross.
In the halls of distracted men, she raised
her voice, learned to pose as if her toe
was inches from a stream.

For which should we care first,
our body or our soul, she’d ask the ladies
in the vestibule, making coffee, cutting cake,
teaching children to say Raphael, just in case.

It seems we quit after landing on the moon,
she mused, exploring her closets, drawers,
and chests, grabbing her purse and keys.
What a day, she thought, walking into Macy’s.


The thinking is inventive from image to image; so much breadth suggested by compression. --Paul Lisicky