A POEM BY LUCAS CARPENTER

philippe petit

 

 

 

     YOUNG MAN ON A UNICYCLE

He emerged from the glare of late afternoon sun,

first as a shimmer, then a black silhouette

resolving hypnotically into focus.

So then there's that moment

when the utterly unexpected

(thankfully shorn of danger)

takes even imagination by surprise

and demands something (you know not what)

from you, but the best I can do

(while saving this sudden circus vision

for stories somewhere else)

is a startled stare, reflexive smile,

and a shuffle dance step I made up.

Not taken aback he balanced before me,

tilting forward, backward, back and forth,

the wheel never making a full turn.

He raised his arms like an evangelical in ecstasy

before heading back down the road that takes us home.

                                               ---Lucas Carpenter

philippe petit

 

 

*