David Stone

The Owl

In the Black Forest,
the scorching scorn,
the chimneys and trees.
Alcuin’s reddened eyes
ruminated on sealed papers.
The owl swooped
from a pine top
to an iron gate
to investigate
a trash fire.
In a basket
burned archives
the owl read,
memorized
and remanded
to Louven.

 

The Bandstand

The band stood hypnotized,
prosecuted
for playing
in a public place
without a license.
The musicians’ fables
wailed
in the reason of night,
humming liturgies
from locked drawers.
In the evening journey,
brass and string players
breathed the scent
of roast from the spit
in the smoke and fumes
of buses and taxis
standing in traffic. 

 

 

 

David Stone was born in Chicago in 1949. He studied philosophy and literature at the University of Illinois, Tel Aviv University and DePaul University in Chicago with  graduate studies in phenomenology. Editor of BLACKBIRD, Stone has been writing and publishing poetry since the 1970s. His new collection, NIGHT TOWN, with illustrations by Belgian artist Guido Vermeulen, will be published by Phrygian Press in 2012.