Constructed World (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: Hope you enjoy this trip into a peaceful landscape.]

Bring your readers into a story

       (or so I have read            among the lines

                                 of various writers)

   like someone who guides readers beyond a doorway

         beyond which stretches another world

                  filled with unknown sights

                                                          sounds

                                                                 smells

                                                                      and sensations

Become their eyes        

                         ears

                         noses

                 and sense of touch

Such as to have a tall                oaken door

    that materializes before them in the darkness

        creak open to reveal such radiance beyond

             they must squint and step back a step

                   even as a warm breeze

                          wafts its way inside

                               and gently brushes their cheeks

Anything might exist beyond that door

     but here it will be a grassy hilltop

          where blue skies       

               spotted by puffy white—

                                           well, let us flick their colors to light pink

                                                                    (this time

                                                                        because it is our choice

                                                                                 to pursue realism

                                                                                            or fantasy)                  

                   Mountains in various shades of purple

                          line the horizon

                                      on either side

                                               of a widespread valley

                                            where villages are visible

                                                        among dense forests

Also         on the hilltop       lays a turquoise blanket

            with a picnic basket at its center

         around which lay plates that hold cookies

                       of every description

Teddy bears sit arranged around the blanket who

      all look up as the reader notices them

                     An old               rugged bear

                          with wire-rimmed spectacles

                                        and a red vest

                                  motions for her or him

                                                to take a seat

                                                      between a lavender bear

                                                                dressed as a ballerina

                                                          and an enormous    black bear

                                                                      dressed as a train conductor

                        ….and every cookie the reader tastes

                                       is as warm as if they were just pulled out

                                                 from an oven by her or his grandmother

                                                            and just as sweet

                                      …where they can spend

                                                   many               peaceful hours

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