Neil Ellman

The Phantom Cart
(after the painting by Salvador Dalí)

                       I
We came to this place on a phantom cart
phantoms ourselves
leaving no wake in the yellow wind
nor footprints in the yellow sand
that filled the air with the cicada-drone
of passing time.

                       II
Not yet there wherever it is
they wait for us
searching for messengers        
in extinction’s shape
from another place in another time
with a premonition of the storm to come.

                     III 
We came to this place not knowing
where or why, or even how
our wheels were mired in the yellow
dust of prophecy
nor when we knew, and they,
that they and we alike
are phantoms of another life.

Small Dark Room

(after the painting by Richard Pousette-Dart)

Walls without a door
windowless thoracic space
no light, the dim-faint sound
of solitude
heartbeats, footsteps
groan of oaken floors
a blind explorer
in a small dark room
once larger in his memory
makes his cautious way
among the splintered furniture
of time.