Print Shining

Intent’s an attentive behavior
Generating meaning with a shove,
In hopes that it gets more attention

And the meaning is sustained. Enough
Intention never guarantees things
Will mean things to anyone else, but

It can create these situations
Where meanings seem to remain latent
As in caves, rock walls, and cuneiform—

It isn’t an illusion, meaning
In these vacant forms, more an echo
Or a fossil. Still, it fools you when

You think your attention brings it back
To life, regenerates the living,
Inherent intent. Not quite. In stones

You can still walk on, in this desert,
There are dinosaur tracks no one’s built,
Yet, a museum around, no one

Has carved out. Which means you can touch them.
Once, you found one exposed on a ledge,
A blue day in autumn—imagine

How many days and nights that footprint
Has been—three-toed, splayed, and bigger than
Your heavy human head. Then began,

In a rare coincidence, a rain,
And you stood dripping and watched it fill
With wet. Made the print stand out and shine.