Louis Efron

Requiem for a String Quartet
 
wood arms bud
stretch sunward
and
softly sway
 
deeply veined ruby-bronzed
leaves conduct
 
visceral vibrations
in melodious winds
 
like warm knives dividing blocks of stiff maple butter
hungry chainsaw blades
in calloused hands
slide through trunks, weakened
 
like old, hinged attic doors creaking downward
woodland torsos slam shut against taut soil
leaving fleeting impressions
at the base of forgotten podiums
 
once pretty
unkempt bark faces
now polished
faceless
 
beneath strings
of weeping instruments
orchestrated to lull those
mourning our ebbing earth



Ode to the Ballet Dancer

in frayed cushioned chairs
cloaked in darkness 
eyes like sequins stitched in velvet black
 escape an imperfect world 
 for a moment
 
façades of effortless endeavors
perfected in everlasting glassy reflections
 gracefully twirl and soar 
in silver pools of radiance
exposing all
 
but our need for love
behind the crimson curtain
where wrapped roses wait
 to wilt
 


Bigger Picture

vintage projectors
reach through darkened theaters
 transcendently from above 
 
like shadowless particles
afloat
in their amber-yellow light
we exist
confined
 between the beams’
 black cloudy edges
 
dust
 
struggles to shine in the flicker of dead celluloid stars 

animating our briefest stories
with familiar endings 

underscored with unrestrained laughter
and brittle sobs 
break
 
until glass gods withdraw their rays
releasing us to softly settle

 

Louis Efron is a globally recognized writer and poet who has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, POETiCA REViEW, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Literary Yard, New Reader Magazine and over 100 other national and global publications. He is also the author of five books, including The Unempty Spaces Between, How to Find a Job, Career and Life You Love; Purpose Meets Execution; Beyond the Ink; as well as the children’s book What Kind of Bee Can I Be?