he heard the wind proclaim,
it’s not much farther now
saw the killdeer land in a ditch,
its feet running as they met the ground
studied the fading stains of
roadkilled armadillos
threw the bones of the library
on the sidewalk
picked through the oracles
divined messages
from broken patterns
and torn pages on
concrete
knew this all meant something
(knew it so deep it drove him silent)
these revelations he never
understood
—
This is a response the the Read Write Poem Prompt: Secret Codes provided by Carolee Sherwood.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
As someone who looks for and sees signs everywhere – although I’m often mystified – I appreciate this. Lovely.
Hey, your tweet worked!
Thanks, Pamela, and thanks for following my tweets! Sometimes I feel like the world is a book I’ll spend a lifetime learning to read.
I was musing on reading tea leaves and consulting oracles and you hit a home run with these lines:
“threw the bones of the library
on the sidewalk
picked through the oracles”
So wonderful, just wonderful.
Thanks, Mark. Those are actually the lines that set the poem off. Glad to hear it worked for you.
I feel this way, most of the time —
knew this all meant something
(knew it so deep it drove him silent)
& I like the way you set “understood” off by itself, the emphasis.
Thanks, angie.