The oaks have
dropped more acorns
this year than anyone
can remember. It’s
like walking on ball
bearings, except
sometimes they pop:
a cap comes off
& one blank face
gains a split. It
must be lonely
having the only
mouth. Do you take
a breath? Do you
invent eating?
Do you look for
another broken soul
& improvise some
kind of minimal
kiss? But wait
a while: soon
everyone will awake
& turn & stick
a yellow tongue
into the earth.
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Oh. This is wonderful.
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Glad you liked it!
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Wow. I love this one, Dave. Those yellow tongues.
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Thanks, Beth.
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Yes, wonderful.
We have an unusual amount of acorns dropping this year too. That ball bearings line is a nice description of that feeling of walking on them.
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Wow, even down in Texas? I wonder why?
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One blank face gains a split. That’s wonderful. I love this. I like the ball bearings allusion too.
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Thanks, glad that worked for you. I think I kind of stole the split-in-a-blank-face idea from the Daoist classic Zhangzi.
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Like this long tactile tongue of a poem.
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Thanks. I don’t usually go quite so heavy on the enjambment but it seemed to work here. Hadn’t thought of the poem itself as a tongue, but good point.
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You surpass yourself my friend. And moreover, in the future I won’t be able to tread on a fallen acorn without summoning your imagery. The squirrels here have an ambition to transform our croquet lawn into an oak woodland, and love trees though I do, I’m forever trying to thwart them. Tiny oak saplings spring up overnight, even though the parent trees themselves are a field away. It’ll only be a matter of time before they succeed. When we are gone and someone less vigilant gardens here, perhaps the squirrels shall have their way. I like that notion. Not ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’, but ‘The Squirrel Who Never Gave Up’!
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You’re telling me you prefer playing croquet to watching a forest grow?! Maybe you could improvise a new game involving acorns.
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I’m very bad at croquet, I get thrashed by eight year olds! I think the squirrels know that and therefore imagine me to be a pushover regarding their plans to turn our garden into a wood!
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Heh. Actually, I love the game, and always figured it was a good thing I never tried golf — probably would’ve become a total duffer.