Frank Adams’ most recent poem to appear here was “Lessons Learned” (March 2019).
Clarity
By Frank Adams
By Frank Adams
Because he knew snakes live in the grass/ he did not go outside
and because planes fall from the sky/ he would not fly
he lived entangled in centuries of dead ancestors/ howling
at the moon/ calling out to night spirits/ painting hieroglyphics
on the walls in invisible ink/ so no one would know they were there/
because his messages were secret. It was unclear to him if he lived
his own life or the life of another/ was he the accumulation of all
that had gone before? What if it were all a scene played over-and-over/
what if he was all of his ancestors/ what if he were none of them/
how was he to know? None of them ever answered him/ though he felt them
all around him – watching, listening, whispering softly in corners/
but never speaking up. He burned pages from holy books/ knowing
God would approve – that is- if there were a God, or Gods/ because
there is no proof/ and “so-called” people of faith die everyday/ die
horrible deaths with prayers on their lips. Maybe the scientists were right/
that humans are apes/ apes in red neckties making up the game of life
as they go along/ puffed up with pride over their achievement/
the smarter monkeys smug in how well they manage their dumber kin.
Because he was who he was/ instead of someone else/ he wondered
these things/ talked to himself and the universe/ without any answers.
It was unclear to him if there were others like him out there/
or if he was all alone/ sometimes unclear if he were here at all.
What a thought-provoking, moving poem; gets at the heart of the human struggle to understand. Thanks for sharing this.
Wonderful. Covers so many bases. Marries misinterpretations of the seven creation tales in the Bible with Darwin and maybe Dawkins, too!!!