POEM OF THE DAY: Norman Dubie's "Buffalo Clouds over the Maestro Hoon"
Hey––it's Norman Dubie, that man of many voices and characters, that maestro of the monologue! Here is tells us about the Maestro Hoon….
BUFFALO CLOUDS OVER THE MAESTRO HOON
It was a useless thing to do with the morning.
Couples with umbrellas strolled over the lawns
Beside the abyss. The Maestro tossed a fresh bed of straw for his friend,
He sipped coffee with chicory,
And, then, attempted to walk over Niagara Falls
On a string while pushing a wheelbarrow
That contained a lion captured in the Congo.
Hoon had copper cleats
Sewn into his silk slippers. He wore the orange gown.
It was the full weight of the lion
That propelled this old man with the wheelbarrow
Over the falls…
Of all things this is what
I've chosen to tell you about the world. This,
And the fact that bearded Hoon and his big cat
Faltered, again and again, up in the wind
But were not toppled.
It was a useless thing to do with the morning.
And a glory. The only beauty
In the story is that the lion roared. His voice
Twice lost to the deafening falls; of course,
It was reported that the lion yawned.
The courage of the beast, feigned or not,
Is a lesson in understanding us,
Who are right when we are wrong,
Who see boredom in a toothless lion,
In his cri de coeur over a stupefying volume
Of falling water
That sounds like the ovation
Given to Hoon as he stepped
Off his tightrope into the open arms
Of men and women with umbrellas
Still strange to one another while on their honeymoons.
