Bewilderhof – 27

Bewilderhof – 27

Chapter 27
– you call that an answer?

on
patch of grass
warm

Bewildehof on his back watching the swarm
as it swirled above
the forever question
(kept
on a card in
a pocket in
crayon in
a child’s hand)
was pulled out and held
to the sky
to be answered

“to you I am one stolen
an abandoner a taproot of
unexplained phenomena
a continuing sprout of conundrum to you I am an untouchable apparition a ghost child a flock of embers an old lady persistent in her nonsense I disrupter of sleep mesmerizer of the wakened that thing that floats across your eye the found verses in your thoughts the voice that falls off your tongue at the end of sentences I am stealer of sounds I am static sparks ball lightening rolling through the wheat I am the chaff of stars orphan of the sun a burr a companion a confidant a constant a riddle”

he sighed yes her voice
“all of that

& I tell you now

I was tapped to release
trapped waters

assigned to help them find a way into fissures in agency

this is expending of purpose
this is expansion & erosion

it is easy defining
boundaries from dirigibles

harder from where
they are drawn

I
discovered
when
chosen
for this
that

I had peeled an orange
& found a mushroom

now the task is
the herding of spores

disrupt disruption
reestablish core”

Bewildehof lay on his back
patch of grass
warm
card repocketed
listened as the lights finished

a name
unconfirmed
playing like
a mantra
in his head

(c) 2015 Fred Whitehead