The Skull Is a House

You check the crawl space under the porch,
Not keen on black widows, skunks, or snakes
But drawn by the urge to check on things.

Some day a marvel will have sprouted
From spores that are this dirt’s treasure hoard,
Why you never dig anything up—

Coins and artifacts won’t drag themselves
Into the light, but you have to wait
On life to create its own entrance.

Until then, you can’t resist checking,
The way your mother would wander out
To check the mailbox multiple times,

The way people keep refreshing screens,
Although you’re not waiting on the news,
You’re waiting on a marvel to rise

From under the ordinary world,
To contradict everything before,
And then what? Who knows. See if it grows.

Indicator

In the Book of All,
Poetry isn’t
A part of the text,

Not the main body—
Poetry is just
A small manicule,

A pointing finger
The poet has left
In the book’s margin,

Calling attention
To something
That seemed important

Or fascinating
In the Book of All—
Calling attention

To itself to point
Attention away
To yet something else.

Scribble

What survives surprises—
The egg in the latrine,
The moccasin in clay,

The rags pinned to foundlings
By desperate mothers
To identify them—

All in museums now,
With notes on provenance,
Centuries past the deaths

Of everyone who used
That latrine, wore muddy moccasins,
Was abandoned at birth.

No matter how many
Fossilized ancestors
Get dug up, it remains

The case that most records
Of human existence
Are more like the tunnels

Scooped through soil by the worms,
The worms long since vanished
But their scribbles now stone.

Gatekeeper in the Ruins

You’re the last one with a gun,
But you’re also nearly done.

You perch on top of the wall
Scanning the wreck of it all,

And you have to ask yourself,
Were things better? Back on the shelf

In cool storage, soon. Honor
Dictates you stay, until order

Returns and someone claims you.
Meanwhile, it’s something to do,

Pretending you’re the center,
That you decide who enters.

Spot the Coach

Ask someone their strategies
And advice for social scenes,
Dyadic interactions,

Or conflict resolution,
And you’re sure to discover
What they don’t do well. We learn

To cover our shortcomings.
That which we know best, we do
Poorly. That’s why we studied.