La Place, by Thomas R. Moore

​La Place by Alberto Giacometti (Switzerland). 1948.

​La Place by Alberto Giacometti (Switzerland). 1948.
 
A woman and four men walk 
in the city square. Fleshless.
Skinny. Comic. Their heels
 
pull from the pavement but
never detach. Who am I? Who
am I? Wind cuts across. 
 
They gaze inward. How
do we know when we are?
they ask. How do we tell
 
knower from deceiver?
Purpose from frivolity?
Under their skinless skins are
 
no pulses, no orgasms. No spigot
of words, no maker of flame,
no speech over the no-clatter
 
of silent feet. The figures 
say alone, say terror. Alberto
paces his studio, scratches
 
his cat's arched back, frowns,
spits, pinches the clay again,
winces at his creation.

Thomas R. Moore

Thomas R. Moore: "I have published three books of poems: The Bolt-Cutters (2010), Chet Sawing (2012), and Saving Nails (2016). My work is represented in more than thirty literary journals and has been broadcast on Writer’s Almanac and American Life in Poetry. My poem 'How We Built Our House' won a Pushcart Prize and publication in 2018 Best of the Small Presses Anthology. I currently serve as Poet Laureate for Belfast, Maine."