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Venice’s Bottom
- By Kevin Dobbs
- Published 09/19/2009
- MaverickMagazine 15/16
- Unrated
The weak and the inebriated
Who slip to their deaths in
The canals do not drown. They are
Absorbed as bulbs would be
Sprouting slowly through the wash
Of time. Everyone has fallen in
At least once, petals of skin
Stretching up and over
The city, the building’s faces
Cadaverous with lust for wine
And song. Even the strong trip
And slide, sinking to
The slippery bottom—all the drinking,
Singing, and laughing, pulling
It all down, down, down.
Copyright © Kevin Dobbs, 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Who slip to their deaths in
The canals do not drown. They are
Absorbed as bulbs would be
Sprouting slowly through the wash
Of time. Everyone has fallen in
At least once, petals of skin
Stretching up and over
The city, the building’s faces
Cadaverous with lust for wine
And song. Even the strong trip
And slide, sinking to
The slippery bottom—all the drinking,
Singing, and laughing, pulling
It all down, down, down.
Copyright © Kevin Dobbs, 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Kevin Dobbs
Kevin Dobbs returned to the USA recently after 18 years in Asia. He’s Dean of Language Arts and Fine Arts at Yuba College in Northern California and has placed poems, fiction, and essays in many journals and anthologies including Chelsea, Raritan: a Quarterly Review, The New York Quarterly, Carolina Quarterly, Florida Review, Sou’wester, Soundings East, Poet Lore, Mid-American Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Karamu, Gulf Stream, Writer’s Forum, and New Delta Review.
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