Clarence Major

[from Clarence Major's Myself Painting, LSU, 2008]

The Wedding

Paint the wedding with flailing figures
and give the landscape high on a hill

in which the festivities are taking place
something we can see, say, the big mouth

of a fish opening,
and let that be the sculpted sun.

Then the dancing jumping bride
and the dancing jumping bridegroom may

fall to the buttered grass, giggling,
and guests in black and white are amused.

The city spreads out lazy below,
seen in its sculpted glamour

but too far away to be heard
in its clamor, so let it be -- and up here

let the wedding dance itself crazy,
let it strut its stuff

till the wind changes. Call it dream time
or time out, call it what you will,

we need it because we live down there.
So, let us dance

till the big mouth of the fish closes.

Myself Painting: Poems