POEM OF THE DAY
Dem Bones
I lay my hands on the exposed rock
of the road cut,
"Nellie Bly" limestone laid down
300 million years ago,
press my finger whorls into the rough
weathered jumble
of creatures rained down into muck
when firedrakes and salamanders ruled the earth.
Cold fire quenched in stone.
Mason's hammer tapping on cold chisel
I break open a striated chunk
of sandstone.
Brachiopods show rust red shields
on a field of deep yellow,
cinnabar against gamboge.
The aegis of Poseidon
exposed
in landlocked Oklahoma.
The grey shale still ripples under vanished waters
next to Dirty Butter Creek.
I follow the tracks of a trilobite
off the cracked stage
crazed and tilted
as mountain ranges rose and fell.
The ancient alphabets spiel themselves underfoot
and I listen
very hard
to hear the water
"that always passes away, and does not decieve
that always passes away, and does not change
that always passes away, and does not end."
Dana Pattillo
Note: The last three lines are by Juan Ramon Jimenez, as translated by Richard Wright.
(PoD 5)
12:18:15 PM 
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