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| photo via Unsplash |
Wistful
We live at the corner of Lincoln and Forest.
What I wouldn't give to stand here
and turn the dial of time backward,
rewind the threads of now
onto the spool of eternity,
pavement evaporating,
divisive moments in human history blurring, retreating, disappearing
as the beech-oak-hickory canopy
closes in
concealing a sky that has never known contrails.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020 (draft)
Love this - it made such a clear picture in my mind as I read it, of the canopy closing in.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary Lee, yes, wish we could turn the dial of time backward. As my husband always says, he was meant to live in an agrarian society. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou know, you kind of have a reverso going on here. Maybe a few tweaks to make it perfect. But, I like reading this backwards too. Beautiful images and movement words.
ReplyDeleteI think you've all captured the feeling of wistful. The spool of eternity is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThe last few lines of your poem are appealing, though I don't know if I'd relish all the grubbiness of earlier times that Tanita brings up in her Wistful poem… Wonderful pic, thanks Mary Lee!
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I guess I would just want to be an observer, rather than live in those times. Just see what it was like before we got to now.
DeleteLove, love, love these lines:
ReplyDeleterewind the threads of now
onto the spool of eternity...
My first comment disappeared mid-comment. Hmmm... at any rate, I love your poem and the sense of movement you've captured--time spinning back on the reel and that canopy growing overhead. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteWistfully standing on the corner of time, I was transported backwards with your words. In a few months, I will be able to "rewind the threads of now onto the spool of eternity", Mary Lee. Thank you for this thoughtful poem as we enter a new year.
ReplyDeleteI love reading time travel books, am often wondering what it would offer like the wish from your poem, Mary Lee. Bringing the past along with us is something we might learn to do so we can face the future in wise ways, "rewind the threads of now". This is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, ML. I like that corner of Lincoln and Forest that dissolves the Lincoln as it moves backward in time. Also, the wish isn’t for a cloudless sky, but a contrail-less sky, if only for long enough to let that all sink in. Nice!
ReplyDeleteI echo the praise for the way this poem brings the reader along in the backward journey in time, Mary Lee. I especially like that you end with a juxtaposed reference to "contrails" - a very modern symbol of movement of time/people/conspiracy theories. Masterfully crafted. :)
ReplyDeleteYour wistfulness touches my reflective mood this morning. "rewind the threads of now
ReplyDeleteonto the spool of eternity," what a line!
rewind the threads of now
ReplyDeleteonto the spool of eternity,
Wow.