Ekphrastics: Coevolution
Deep in the jungles of Madagascar
a flower exists with a musky scent,
with a foot long tube and petals that are
like slices of pizza and with spurs pent
up and full of nectar which attracts moths
who themselves have a foot long proboscis
used to suck the Star of Bethlehem's broths.
These moths with eight inch wings are colossus
sized and evolved alongside the flowers
that give them sustenance. I wonder how
they'll continue to evolve, the powers
of evolution will one day allow
them to have a two foot long spur and a
two foot long proboscis, perhaps someday.
Ekphrastics: Web of Life
The entire world is a connected
web of interdependencies: plants and
people, birds and trees, buildings erected
jets in the air, the tilling of the land.
Everything we do effects things around
us which in turn effects ourselves. Every
breath we inhale and the things that surround
us, whether buildings, cars, or air heavy
with pollutants, effects our health, the world
and everything in it. We should reduce
our impact on the earth or we'll be hurled
into a world of shit. Don't be obtuse
about it, it's really simple. Just use
less, consume less: the Earth needs less abuse.
Ekphrastics: Double Vision
The Pantheon in Rome, the oculus
allowing the sun to illuminate
the coffered dome. The Roman populace
come here to worship God and ruminate
on the accomplishments of the ancients.
Millions of people from around the world
come here too, and they wait with great patience
as the lines to see it are long and curled
around the city block. What accomplished
race had once lived here and built this marvel
clad in stone with bronze sculptures and polished
bright as the morning sky, built from marble,
the resting place of Raphael, the house
of gods and each and every goddess spouse.
Ekphrastics: Sign Language
Her hands, fluttering like a butterfly
through the air, are pronouncing sublime odes,
salutations of hello and goodbye
and other enunciations. She goads
a woman into writing poetry
about being mute and deaf and what's born
is a five part narrative piece in free
verse that details in depth the woman's scorn
for all things auditory: why use my
vocal cords and ears when I could use eyes
and hands to convey the messages I
wish to convey, she takes a deep breath, sighs,
and realizes that it's all untrue:
she'd love to use her ears like me or you.
Ekphrastics: Bone Shadows
The ribcage of a long dead dinosaur
who once roamed the jungles of a long lost
paradise, now a desert stretching far
and wide in every direction. The host
of symbiotic parasites it its
intestines: worms and slugs and other bugs
helping the digestion of little bits
of conifers that the dinosaur chugs.
Where are they now, these dragons who once roamed
the earth, who dominated the planet,
who ate smaller dragons and who had combed
through ancient trees for sustenance. The net
of an alien race, spacefarers from
mars, hunted the dinosaurs large and dumb.
"Five Poems" by Kenneth Larot Yamat
No comments:
Post a Comment