POEM | EKPHRASTIC

Smoke Signals

Inspired by Norman Rockwell

New Television Antenna by Norman Rockwell, 1949. Image:

Dad straddled shingles
for a superior signal,
his old man heckling
from the attic,
eager for clearing
static clouding
dreams of Jeannie,
born neat in a bottle
of Jim Beam,

attempting with an antenna
to amplify America’s agenda,
swapping star-spangled
chatter and banter
beside a ladder.

Moving over Monday’s
mundanity, making space
for make believe humanity,
we stuff our faces
with salisbury steaks
served on TV trays,

commencing with Hitchcock’s
hypnotic good evening
before Beaver Cleaver
bathes on a billboard,
stuck in steaming soup,
savoring Serling,
The Twilight Zone
episodes pushing paranoia,
and the stolen show
from sultry Monroe’s
birthday serenade
wrapped in a fur coat,