Four Poems by Louis Kasatkin

 

Sans Culottes

 

That rumbling on the cobblestones

once so far away,  

now getting ineluctably louder

is the sound of tomorrow,

the slow rising chorus 

of joy and exultation 

of all those downtrodden 

down all the Ages;

blamed for all ills 

none of them of their own making,

Since being powerless 

how could they influence

and dictate events?

It is and was misdirection,

a grand ballroom masque;

then again all such soirées 

must end,

and the tumbrils arrive

even for the Marie Antoinettes.

 

 

NIGHT & THE CITY

 

The night time starts at the river

before it closes over the City;

a Wind drifts in with

the moistened shadows,

it flings them

into the street

flattens them against 

the gutter,

picks a man

waiting for a bus

and wraps darkness 

around him;

and a light comes on

then another, 

and down the street

there's a crowd gathered

against the traffic signal,

high above them

a neon sputters flames

the gaudy and the spectacular dance;

Someone runs into the street

and yells " Come on!"

and everybody does,

Night has come to the City. 

 

 

Leadership Contest 

 

Imbeciles ponder

and wait

outside the door

marked "No Admittance";

Each with their

own excuse ready

as they in turn knock

expectantly on the door 

marked "No Admittance";

With no reply forthcoming 

each one then knocks again

on the door

marked "No Admittance";

This lacklustre mise-en-scene

eventually exhausts its participants 

upon whom the realisation dawns,

that they all need

to wait and ponder

outside the door marked 

"Admittance for Imbeciles Only".

 

 

Maria Alvarez :Scenes from an Undistinguished Life

 

Maria Alvarez embroidered her

life with meticulous detail,

consistent in her affectations

she accumulated the outward

appearance of savoir-faire;

her aspirations, unfulfilled

and unfulfillable, lent their

careless trajectory to her life;

whenever vicissitudes threatened,

a laconic smile and something

of hubris at the corner of the mouth

would sustain her amid the disillusionment;

such was the order of her life

until the careless trajectory

of a point three-two bullet

bisected her spouse’s slumbering frame,

setting her free from the borrowed melancholy

in which she had sought refuge

from joy, uncertainty and herself.

Louis Kasatkin is founder of Destiny Poets in the UK and Editorial Administrator at www.destinypoets.co.uk. For more than 20 years a Poet and Poetry promoter,Louis has been Poet-in-Residence at Wakefield Cathedral and workshop leader in schools and the wider local community.