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Syndic Literary Journal

And the Arabs Ask Terrible Questions

Narrated by Kristine Doll

Massachusetts

Ferlinghetti – And the Arabs Asked Terrible Questions …

And the Arabs asked terrible questions
and the Pope didn’t know what to say and the people
ran around in wooden shoes asking which way was the
head of Midas facing and everyone said

No instead of Yes

While still forever in the Luxembourg
gardens in the fountains of the Medicis were the
fat red goldfish and the fat white goldfish
and the children running around the pool
pointing and piping

Des poissons rouges!
Des poissons rouges!

but they ran off
and a leaf unhooked itself
and fell upon the pool
and lay like an eye winking  
circles
and then the pool was very

still

and there was a dog
just standing there
at the edge of the pool
looking down

at the tranced fish

and not barking
or wavilig its funny tail or
anything

so that

for a moment then

in the late November dusk

silence hung like a lost idea
and a statue turned

its head

 

Compiled/Published by LeRoy Chatfield
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