Shadow Puppets, by Deborah Guzzi

Man on Crutch and Woman with Umbrella, by Bill Traylor, approx. 1940.

Shadow Puppets

Behind the parchment screen and eye to eye Punch chided.
Who are you? Who is she? He’d point it out. You’d see.
No marionette with strings was he. Their paths collided;
Judy stands and faces his animosity

The play is writ by man and maid and staged to teach,
the right and wrong of woman’s position, our place.
Standing on two legs, she meets his gaze without speech.
what shenanigan have brought on this crutched lambaste.

Let us ponder Mr. Punchinell’s stance, his missing leg
let his two-eyed profile tease, has Judy been upstaged?
Stumped by the shadow lore, the punch, the audience begs
for the stiff necked tirade to end her pick engaged.

Speared by humour, we see two realities spar on
with no means to run, the missing third prong’s a pun.  

Deborah Guzzi

This poem was written for the 20 Poem Challenge.

Deborah Guzzi, author of The Hurricane, writes full time. The Hurricane is available at[email protected] and through Prolific Press. Her poetry appears regularly in journals & literary reviews in the UK, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Greece, Spain, France, India & dozens of others in the USA.  http://www.the-hurricanedg.com/