The secrets of the owl's wing, The runes of wolf and lynx, The cryptography of shadows on the snow The furtive song of rabbit and mouse, What the rattling oak leaves mean, The cipher of frost on a window Illuminated by a sheen of blue light, Whose footfall crosses the frozen lake Each step erased by the sweep of wind. Where the bones are hidden And how they got there and what You are thinking now staring up Into that stony eye, your heart Just another small creature beating Against the fluttering wall of darkness. Copyright (c) 2001 by The Modern Poetry Association. This poem appears in the September 2001 issue of @3Poetry@1 Magazine. http://www.poetrymagazine.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE THREE PHILOSOPHICAL POETS by GEORGE SANTAYANA I SIT AND SEW by ALICE RUTH MOORE DUNBAR-NELSON LAUSANNE: IN GIBBON'S OLD GARDEN by THOMAS HARDY FRINGED GENTIANS by AMY LOWELL ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA by PHILLIS WHEATLEY CASTOR AND POLYDEUCES by ALCAEUS OF MYTILENE A CHARACTER OF JOHN MORT by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD VERSES WRITTEN IN THE LEAVES OF AN IVORY POCKET-BOOK by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |