Monday, February 24, 2020

8/30 Frontiered Calliope

Somewhere between El Reno & Altus
is a town called Nowhere
the single attraction
hidden southeast of ole' Ft Cobb,
are a pair of broken bricked lovers
two shed-like contraptions,
just off the main road
one leans left while the other right
I have suggested it barricaded in brocade
if someone living lived in Nowhere,
walls would be condemned,
they no longer are as they once were

a frontiered calliope

now they stand
sentinels charged with the hill-laden landscape
defending their necessary existence
which passes unbeknownst
in many a rearview
rails and coots are the only squatters
spending seasons nesting
into a future the entwined won't live to see
(did the fledglings offer saudade songs?)
the crippled roof 
weathered high beams 
bare dirt floor
built so close to almost be one, yet
they are an emaciated and aged couple,
decomposing above ground
as testimony
to a surrender the world should not forget-
don’t think I didn’t have designs on the place
                                 to wrestle it back from the earth
to envelope myself in a love’s forgotten letter
Even so...
sunlight speckled
how one leans left while the other right
eventually their parentheses
will be the echo of sound
from nowhere
carried in the wind by birdsong




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