A very charming summer dress.
This the eagle’s announcement of Spring’s arrival.
Today let’s drink to everyone,
anything, even that,
even God,
and the hope he will not save us.
Walking along a road,
in between stations,
the sun in your face,
no mythical crossroads here,
no mirage of intentions,
a distant figure gestured –
‘Follow me down’
and along you went.
It can be that simple:
a world was expecting you
at a certain time and place
but you were no longer a part of that world.
People wondered, those closest
those who never really caught on,
but no device of recall,
no pictures, no postings,
would return you
to that former, unhappy circumstance.
A thousand years on,
spade turned to shovel,
this episode unearthed
as a milk carton fragment,
Holmes turned to Watson
– arms akimbo –
the eyeglass elongating that parcel
from a universe un-reckoned:
“This was a great culture.
“In this way they celebrated their famous people.”
Regret passed me by
like the village men with their torches,
scouring the night for those shades of truth
which trouble their sleep.
Daniel Pendergrass has work placed or forthcoming in Chiron Review, Van Gogh’s Ear, O.D. Mag, Shampoo, Miller’s Pond, and The Blue Mouse.