For Medicinal Purposes

If we hadn’t been out there doing the mini-search for aesthetics

nobody would have known about it, the expansion,

all over the horizon

trying to make something of itself.

The rain came in as proposed

and the variety

troupe practiced stumbling in

and out of

the afternoon. The rest of us

kept our wits

in our hands in case someone

needed them later

at the hanging. The boat poets

arrived with a pause,

which some felt was instinctive.

What was known

about trifles

and mechanical things, underground music

for example, was scraped

away with a map. The big clouds

seemed to sense

something. Roger took off his funny hat

and the children

laughed. The card game went

on with guests

slapping their pounds

and lire with flair. Still, the circumference

was there. But however

grateful the gang was for the lemonade

and French lessons,

the facts, such as they

were about the enlarged world, kept us

in our chairs

waiting for the gendarme.

On the back acre of the lawn, Roger’s

goat chased the parrots into hysteria. It was quite the thing to see.

(first appeared, South Florida Poetry Journal’s online Chameleon Chimera: An Anthology of Florida Poets)

Lenny DellaRocca is a 71-year-old self-taught poet, founding editor and publisher of South Florida Poetry Journal-SoFloPoJo, and co-editor of Chameleon Chimera, An Anthology of Florida Poets. His latest collection is Pandemonium, winner of the 2025 Slipstream Chapbook competition.