Prompt 85: Talisman

Thanks to Joseph Harker of Naming Constellations for this week's prompt, talisman. Here is his poem:

Odds and Ends

We are making a religion out of Small Things,

weaving significance from yarn and whiskers and wire.

These inkstains are our sacred books, telling stories

of the first kiss, of cat's eye marbles and baby teeth.

Our pockets hold cowrie shells and birthday candles,

feathers to burn like incense for a mackerel sky.

We are finding the religion in Small Things,

the luck in a penny from the year you were born,

the mystery in a drop of mercury sitting sly on the table,

the sanctity of a dandelion, untouched and unblown.

Our amulets are rhinestones and peach pits.

Our reliquaries are hollows in the trees that gather water.

We are trading old religion for Small Things,

for they are everywhere and just as important, too.

They hold us together like a chain of paperclips,

and our prayers have dwindled into punctuation.

Thank us for the beauty in tea leaves and eyelids;

bury us in graves that have been measured in inches.

Photo used with permission © M. A. Enriquez
view the Flickr photostream at urbanwoodswalker

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