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The Postmodernist Exhibition

Last night's storm
has left its artwork on the beach,
a postmodernist exhibition 
of brown seaweed strewn in clumps 
like hair on a barbershop floor,
broken seashells 
and a fallen rainbow of plastics 
strung out along the shore
where now an exhausted sea
licks the leftovers of a meal.

Chaos has been distilled down
to washed up artifacts 
and red bottle caps, drinking straws
and spoons buried deep inside a ball
of yellow twine. I cannot make
much sense of what is on display
or glean from this haphazard art
a hint of meaning 
other than in its making.

All seems uncoupled, specimens 
torn from lonely souls, bits
and pieces coughed up 
out of the exhaust of a huge machine 
whose pistons pump and drive
a spinning wheel that has no purpose. 
I pick up a plastic sandal 
and wonder whose foot 
it once belonged to, then put it back
and walk home
alone.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2024




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Date: 9/12/2024 4:03:00 AM
Hello Paul, so well expressed and I love the imaginative play on all that a sea can bring to a beach. But there is so many aspects as it relates to life. Randomness, lack of coherence, disconnection, isolation, meaninglessness, purposeless of a post modern word. Well Inked! - Blessings, My Friend, Daniel
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Willason Avatar
Paul Willason
Date: 9/13/2024 4:55:00 PM
Great comments Daniel...all these play out in the poem. The dangers of postmodernism are obvious...it all comes back to the individual and the solitary nature of the experience. Meaning only is in the mind of the beholder. For me, I prefer the possibility of transcendence, the glint of something beyond self. Take care my friend...value your comments.

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