Life

 

'Still Life', Mario Fallani (1981)

[Life]

 “viewing mario fallani no. 2”

 

still lifes don’t stay still

stare? we ask how they got there

what’s going on, like life

 

a vase, whirled from the earth

has come to rest for a time

in this clean quiet space, like life

 

while around and behind

teems the world entire dreaming

scheming from need, like life

 

the flowers like fire, like fountains

colours defiant at the rim

begin their fadeout, like life

 

everything to mind recedes

let go in the time of ledge

and half-light as if nothing matters

 

but the view of a vase, past and

future the usual unusual encounter

we will get back to too soon

 

style life is so yesterday

the manner faded unaided

placed in storage a while

 

like this and other still lifes

holding secrets in plain sight

an unnoticed breeze and all of it

 

like life, that gives and gives

and is old before its time

until we notice anew and stare