Dec 2024
IF WE SHADOWS....
it was as if a cloud
had fallen asleep
in the lower field
it had already eaten
an unhitched wagon
and half a red barn
it watched us
approaching
from the yellow
windowed house
where the babies lay asleep
blowing spit bubbles
it seemed to smile in a
giant grey candy floss
way and then
started in on
first you and then
me or what
was left of me
that I could see
it had eaten all of you
except your excited voice
all you could see of me
was my nervous laughter
we had been evicted from
our known selves
and there was no known
forwarding address
we were all points of
the compass at once
“Moo!”
commented a cow
on the situation at hand
and “Moo” mimicked
the cloud having had
eaten everything
there was no place to live
except inside our thoughts
and our thoughts
walked our bodies
towards the barn that
like Mr. Schrödinger's cat
was either
there or
either not
“Moo!”
said a moo
“Moo!” said another moo
one moo almost
the clone
of the other
we had arrived
we were now
here
suddenly our arms legs and other
bits of our bodies were
returned to us
thanks to a light switch
that made us in our own image
so that we owned ourselves again
the cloud was sleeping
in the field one could almost
imagine it snoring
I clapped
my hands together
stomped my feet
“Ok!” I said
“…let’s get on with
the milking!"
*
Shadows look curiously 3-D in fog....and more real than us...I was thinking of Shakespeare's lines lost in the mists of my mind and walking with my little Tilly to milk the cows and see the new calf that had only arrived the other night. She had rushed in to tell me that there was a cloud fallen in the field and it was asleep. It was the first fog she have ever seen and this was her reasoned argument for it. We had to use the words "Fog, Lost, Directionless, Echo and Homeless" for the ideas to latch onto in the poem but not used the actual words themselves....say them without saying them....this was my attempt at doing that.
it was as if a cloud
had fallen asleep
in the lower field
it had already eaten
an unhitched wagon
and half a red barn
it watched us
approaching
from the yellow
windowed house
where the babies lay asleep
blowing spit bubbles
it seemed to smile in a
giant grey candy floss
way and then
started in on
first you and then
me or what
was left of me
that I could see
it had eaten all of you
except your excited voice
all you could see of me
was my nervous laughter
we had been evicted from
our known selves
and there was no known
forwarding address
we were all points of
the compass at once
“Moo!”
commented a cow
on the situation at hand
and “Moo” mimicked
the cloud having had
eaten everything
there was no place to live
except inside our thoughts
and our thoughts
walked our bodies
towards the barn that
like Mr. Schrödinger's cat
was either
there or
either not
“Moo!”
said a moo
“Moo!” said another moo
one moo almost
the clone
of the other
we had arrived
we were now
here
suddenly our arms legs and other
bits of our bodies were
returned to us
thanks to a light switch
that made us in our own image
so that we owned ourselves again
the cloud was sleeping
in the field one could almost
imagine it snoring
I clapped
my hands together
stomped my feet
“Ok!” I said
“…let’s get on with
the milking!"
*
Shadows look curiously 3-D in fog....and more real than us...I was thinking of Shakespeare's lines lost in the mists of my mind and walking with my little Tilly to milk the cows and see the new calf that had only arrived the other night. She had rushed in to tell me that there was a cloud fallen in the field and it was asleep. It was the first fog she have ever seen and this was her reasoned argument for it. We had to use the words "Fog, Lost, Directionless, Echo and Homeless" for the ideas to latch onto in the poem but not used the actual words themselves....say them without saying them....this was my attempt at doing that.
