General 5-9-2005

Poem of the Week: Tim Brennan

Tim Brennan is the writer of the first weekly poem on mnartists.org. He's been an English teacher and drama director for a southeastern Minnesota rural school for 22 years.

Tim Brennan
1

dressed rehearsals

father broods on his
three room stage, rehearses
maybe; sips reheated

coffee. maybe he thinks
about mother; her character
now dead these two, almost

three years. outside,
the ever performing moon
murmurs listen but nothing

happens save for moths
banging against a cool porch
light, wings clapping under
fresnel stars. I have

questions: landscape
or seascape? comedy

or tragedy? where
have i been led? it is
as if i am just expected:

lines directed through
forty-two years of mother
dressed rehearsals; cameos

my emotional presence;
perhaps all the world
is a stage, but not all

men merely players:
one is a brooding
director, tugging the strings

of a heart; one is a struggling
understudy, still waiting
patiently for a script.

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