Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance
They look as if they were characters of a Beckett play stuck in some no man’s land between one of those places where people are buried up to their necks in refuse or worse, and another, where all the dwellings have been burned out and partially rebuilt, then abandoned once the will to go on flagged and couldn’t be revived. The ill-fitting suits they wear convey a message: we’re here at the wake for the food and drink and we’ll gladly sneak out behind the seen-better-days cottages for a snog with a lass or maybe dance a jig if music should happen in between toasts for the dearly departed,:“May he go in peace and always have the wind at his back.” None of them do bereavement or real joy either, but they will take a drink, if offered, maybe two or three and then, whatever chaos ensues will make what remains of the night a memorable one. They have no clue what any of this means or whether they are in it for the long haul or just passing through. It’s a long walk from where they are now to wherever it is they are going. Alan Catlin Alan Catlin has been publishing for parts of five decades. His work derives from many interests from Art, music and literature to the bars he lived and worked in. His many full length books and chapbooks include the ekphrastic collection "Effects of Sunlight on Fog" from Bright Hill Press and, more recently from Future Cycle Press, "American Odyssey" largely derived from photos by Mary Ellen Mark and photos by photographers killed in Vietnam. Forthcoming is "Wild Beauty", also largely ekphrastic, from Future Cycle Press. His chapbook, "Blue Velvet" (poems inspired by movies) won the 2017 Slipstream Chapbook Award.
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The Ekphrastic Review
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February 2025
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