Ostraca Poetica

Very normal people
With very normal lives,
Struggling with jobs, food, kids,

Even their marriages,
Noted on pottery—
That’s one way to reread

The historical past.
Prospectively, the same
Shards of crockery style

Could be left here and there
For the future to find.
That’s how you find futures,

Written or otherwise—
You imagine the past
You’ve been scrutinizing

And take one piece of it—
Say, what you’ve been writing—
Overlay some other,

Much older scraps with that—
Say, codices, ruins,
Buried scrolls, ostraca—

And imagine them found
By some future scholar,
Your words on old fragments.

It’s very appealing,
But let’s face it, that past,
Then, won’t be like this past.