Group Portrait with Backdrop 1999
A quick glimpse reveals an odd grouping
assembled for a picture by a shallow,
outdoor wading pool on desert's edge,
somewhere in the rugged Southwest
among flowering cactus, rough stones
with artificial waterfalls, a set background
for performers holding a multitude of
ventriloquist dummies, some held in hand
or on laps, others propped up to simulate
standing, many realistic with human clothing,
straw boaters, string neckties, others creatures
of the imagination: Sesame Street characters,
hobgoblins and ghosts, circus sideshow clowns
and spirit creatures, some smiling, others not;
their collective voices not quite laughter,
not quite a scream, all of them asking the same
question, ”Why are we here? “
Alan Catlin has been publishing since the seventies; from the mimeos to the Internet. His latest full length book of poems is “Alien Nation.” He is currently working on a sequel to that book under the working title of, “Beautiful Mutants.”