Deco Decorum
Janina Aza Karpinska
As a young man he developed a taste for
art deco artefacts – attracted by their
geometric designs; curvaceous furniture,
and dressers that displayed, to good effect,
cups and saucers, and bric-a-brac,
collecting as much as he could
from markets over decades;
seeking the distinctive cut
of angled mirrors that would
beautifully reflect the myriad of mottled
glass lampshades hanging in every room
of his cherished home-emporium.
It long became his custom to observe
each evening after supper, a hallowed ritual:
dressed in maroon silk smoking jacket;
standing at a bird’s eye maple cabinet,
fixing Martini cocktails complete with
silver onion and olives on a stick.
Then, sitting in his fireside wing-seat,
feet propped on a stool of tooled leather,
he listens to the voice of a tenor sing,
from the phonograph in the corner,
a cautionary song that warns of
the unlit ways of life that lead to a broken heart.
Better one stay on the path that’s lit,
than stumble blindly and live with regret.
A tear escapes ~
creates a silver line ~
around his cheek and lip,
then drops, unseen,
on his immaculate lap.
JANINA AZA KARPINSKY is “an Artist and Poet, and an Artist-Poet, often combining the two; an M.A. in Creative Writing & Personal Development at Sussex University brought in a 3rd essential strand of interest: the therapeutic element. I have work published in several anthologies including ‘Poetry in the Waiting Room’; LAPIDUS Magazine (Literary Arts in Personal Development) and in several volumes that came of writing sessions at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, based on the artefacts there; 1st prize in the Cannon Open Poetry Competition and highly commended in The Rottingdean Writers International Poetry Competition. I have also illustrated my own work in The 3rd Way and provided artwork for an anthology of work relating to mental health; ‘Warning! May Contain Nuts’. Performer; monologue writer; playwright & former community radio broadcaster. On the prowl for something new…”