Pearl is the National Bauble
Best known as the country’s first
civilian grain of sand inside an oyster,
the new reporter looks for ghost stories
Out of the bottle, sure bet,
simple loss of oxygen works for him,
complex only rotates on radio waves
Scandal is somewhere out on the edge of a tape
pickpockets a society of recordings,
chitchats along changed terrain like a bad girl
Tomorrow is yet another fine example
of what can be done about nothing.
News is history, baked shallow in the sun
Find me a scholar who visits princes,
a curious specialist of deep sea change
grown in spider caves emerging whole
A beautiful tool, an honest stringer,
strong cord with loops at both ends,
who sends me to drift in the expensive ocean
8 thoughts on "Pearl is the National Bauble"
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makes me thirsty for a glass of fresh ice water..
and wonder what sort of knot it would take
to hold these grainy ghosts on the line.
Perfection Loop with a bead of glue?
My imagination is like an old nag on her last leg, yours like a rested troika charging forth across the steppes.
This could be a young newspaper reporter in Boston who throws herself into the ocean of big city news. Or not.
“Tomorrow is yet another fine example
of what can be done about nothing”
Yep
I think your imagination is most excellent-you now have mine as some sort of Russian Paul Revere spilling the tea!
So much to enjoy here, but my favorite part is “News is history, baked shallow in the sun”
That second to last stanza is a wonderful collaboration of disparate items, I’m in love with the sounds/images it makes.
The language is so rich. So many memorable lines.
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This poem is such a well-crafted bauble! Love the imagery. This stanza might be my favorite
Scandal is somewhere out on the edge of a tape
pickpockets a society of recordings,
chitchats along changed terrain like a bad girl