This is Not a Pipe by Janice D. Soderling

The Treachery of Images, by Rene Magritte, 1929.

 
This is not a pipe: La trahison des images, René Magritte
 
This is not a love affair.
This is not an affaire de coeur.
This is what the piper cost.
This is a sinking ship.

Maybe it is a one-way street.
Maybe it is a dead-end street.
Maybe it is a pipe dream.
It is not and never has been an apple.

It is a hat wearing a man.
It is a giraffe in a wine glass.
It is a rose ad infinitum.
It is the past waiting to be the future.

It is a play. Act IV, Scene V, Ophelia drowning
and the electricians walking out on strike.
It is a snuffed candle, an altar pulled down.
It is a broken ski, a key of ashes.

It is a letter dropped and run over by an ambulance.
It is a war just getting underway.
It is the legend of the centuries.
Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

Janice D. Soderling

Janice D. Soderling is a previous contributor. Recent and forthcoming work at Mezzo Cammin, Wasafiri, Modern Poetry in Translation, Asses of Parnassus, Boston Literary Magazine’s "Best of” anthology, and The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology. Her chapbook ms. "Political Woman" was honourably noted by Minerva Rising.