"Komposition X" by Amy Allara

After she correctly translated "Hit the Lump of Rich Seal" into "The Triumph of Achilles" and identified Louise Gluck as that book's author, Amy Allara wrote this flowing acrostic poem that (to paraphrase Stevens) approaches prose but turns back into verse at the last possible second, the end of each line. The challenge called for a two-stanza poem; Allara makes the unconventional choice of breaking the lines into asymmetrical units of eleven and two.   -- DL

“Komposition X”

Left only with a motley assortment of objects

or with a series of flimsy hypotheses to explain what might be an

underpinning of what had just been there,

it doesn’t seem at all proper that one should just take leave

so unceremoniously without notification, without so much as an

exit that made sense or even a sound or with a

going that could invite an easy rationale.

Latching onto these inert items seems hazardous and certainly his copy of

Über Psychoanalyse cannot transmit much warmth to the wrecked bed

        linens —

Can a return to collect be counted on or is that stark and enigmatic

Kandinsky now hooked onto my wall for good.

-- Amy Allara