The Black & White Ball

Guns salute, and crowds and pigeons fly,

Bronzed, Homeric bards go striding by,
Shouting 'Glory!' 'mid the cannonade:

No, not Capote's – but Gabe & Tarah's
Black & White
Masquerade.

Actors [116; 141; 164], sportsmen [524-559], singers [110; 119], join the throng,
Painters [158; 174; 403], sculptors [224; 243; 560–8], dancers [523] tramp along,
Farm-signs prance, weathered and frayed: [150; 167]
It is a checkerboard [397]
Art and Beauty
Crusade.

Penguins [512], Zebras [32], Storks [244] up high

Geese in an Escher print fly by [144]

Numbers [341] and letters [273-6] all arrayed: —
It is the geometric
Zoological
Cavalcade.

Skeletons [24; 179] dance, with bones as white as milk,

Lamps that fold [72; 88; 95] and cherubs [333] of silver silk,

Etchings in harlequin patterns made: [129–134; 435]
It is the variegated
Resurrection
Escapade.

Hieroglyphic objects [427; 490] here we bring.
Rich inscriptions [333] strut and talk and sing.
A scroll [139] to read, a picture-word [107] brigade: —
It is the iconographic
Word and Image
Parade.

Raised up like stars [198], signs [104; 140; 146; 149–154] abound,
They spread like scrolls [285], lift us from the ground,
Star-born ships [153], that have come in masquerade: —
It is the sidereal 

Promenade.

Wheeled [251] and naked [173; 188] and rocking [383] jamboree,
Roar and foam upon the monochrome sea,
Mirrors [148; 462] sing the Sun a serenade:
It is the polarized
Chromatic
Ambuscade.

by Dr. Dann