The Ventriloquist Dreams Blank Verse

Rikki Santer


            British ventriloquist Walter Lambert (1869-1949)
            performed as a female impersonator under
            the stage name of Lydia Dreams.
          


This vaudevillian dreams of wisecracker
nutcracker mouths, Fanta/sea hair frosted
orangutan true to pivot & pitch
the mimicry of Lucky Nutty Jones
drag ain’t new nursing dummy accident
victim in drop jaw one act sketch, the jokes
bandaged & blue dig a pony sir john
lennon the manifold powers of voice
indicating, penetrating, all we
want to do is syndicate any gurney
we row and the voice jugglers that reign
today, with talking hands that launch the ghosts
bel canto sired by larynx, palate, tongue
rotate a stump like Linda Blair & twirl
the alphabet of vents—the AEROflane
flew aVOVE the clouds anid the hard rain.




Rikki Santer: My work has appeared in various publications including Ms. Magazine, Poetry East, Margie, Hotel Amerika, The American Journal of Poetry, Slab, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO, Grimm, Slipstream, Midwest Review and The Main Street Rag. My seventh poetry collection, In Pearl Broth, was published this past spring by Stubborn Mule Press.