London, 1975 - Mark Young

Auditioning
for the next
Francis Bacon
painting, the
amputees
gather
in the square,
squashed in
together
as if, en
masse,
they
might acquire
that which
they are
lacking or,
at least,
come to
possess
a complete-
ness that
stays with them
right up to
the moment
when they
stand, fall,
crawl before
the audition
panel to be
judged
on their
singularity.



Mark Young is a New Zealander now living on the Tropic of Capricorn in Australia. He has been publishing poetry for more than 45 years & his work has appeared in many print & electronic journals.
He recently co-edited
The First Hay(na)ku Anthology with Jean Vengua (http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku.htm),

has had e-chaps published this year by Moria Books (http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html)

& BlazeVOX
(http://www.cafepress.com/blazevox.48810121),

& his latest book of poetry, episodes, is due out soon from xPress(ed).
He maintains a couple of blogs,
pelican dreaming (http://pelicandreaming.blogspot.com/) from which this poem is taken,

& mark young's Series Magritte (http://seriesmagritte.blogspot.com/).


“Gas Masks For Man And Horse” image (circa 1917-18) is from the National Archives and Records Administration.