The Shadow Play Master

the shadow play master’s
slender but crooked fingers
and neat paper silhouettes
grow and shrink for the last time
on the wall inside the brick building

oak brass tea steam
phlegmatic applause
the master makes his exit
while charming charlatan
with wild duck in basket
makes his appearance

door creaks fox flees into bush
coach passes by copper lamppost
three afghan hounds run after the coach
their paws hardly touch the ground

the frost fog in the grove
icy through respiratory tract
the shadow play master’s green coat
with black pompoms
becomes visible through the fog
but not his flour white complexion

hoarfrost on nostril hair
pine needles become blue
only frost no snow yet.


© Jenny Enochsson 2019


(This is a revised version of a poem I wrote in 2010.)

Mysterious Pines

© Jenny Enochsson 2017

I will hopefully post a poem next time. The last seven years I have written fiction in Swedish and no poetry. At the moment, I am writing a novel. I am a bit uptight about creating poems again, but I also enjoy the freedom of free verse a lot. In a way, my poems are mini stories.

Jenny Enochsson 

Jenny Enochsson

Alder

beyond wet stubble-field

is the woodland pub

with rusty fog oiled window hinges

man with teeth like grains of maize

carries tin pail

with lukewarm raspberry juice

to the half blind heron

by the riverbank

tree silhouettes like celtic cheek bones 

and jawlines visible when leaves fall

stage filled with bursting acorns

drumhead elastic like eyelids

flute rising over sleeping algae

below flight of swans

dancing selenite-white kid

with branch horns

pub guests drinking ale

or raspberry wine with seed crackle

in green venetian glass cups

cat with frosty savannah gaze

walks across a hill

distant drum cloud light

alder cones in his hair

sulphite steam round leg stalks

Jenny Enochsson (b. 1976) lives in Uppsala, Sweden. She writes short stories and poetry in her native language Swedish and in English. Some of her pieces have been published in literary magazines and in other publications. Jenny is an editor of Rufous Salon.