A Countdown in Poems to the Irish Arts Center PoetryFest

Poem #13: Signs, by Gjertrud Schnackenberg

November 5, 2015  By Literary Hub
1


Literary Hub has counted down the days until the seventh-annual Irish Arts Center PoetryFest begins by publishing a poem, as selected by festival co-curator Belinda McKeon. The festival begins tomorrow at the Irish Arts Center.

 

Signs, by Gjertrud Schnackenberg

 

Threading the palm, a web of little lines

Spells out the lost money, the heart, the head,

The wagging tongues, the sudden deaths, in signs

We would smooth out, like imprints on a bed,

 

In signs that can’t be helped, geese heading south,

In signs read anxiously, like breath that clouds

A mirror held to a barely open mouth,

Like telegrams, the gathering of crowds –

 

The plane’s X in the sky, spelling disaster;

Before the whistle and hit, a tracer flare;

Before rubble, a hairline crack in plaster

And a housefly’s panicked scribbling on the air.

 

Literary Hub is a proud sponsor of Irish Arts Center PoetryFest.












More Story
Reading Henry Dumas After Trayvon Martin Whenever I see a new account of this or that police department going to the shooting range with targets made from the mug shots...