What Was Written Poem by Carlana Brown

Testimonies found on
An ancient palimpsest
Never recovered words
To be seen again

Leftover from times gone by
What could they have indicated
Would they have given us
A way to live our lives nowadays

Perhaps even held a shopping list
A note to get a child to an appointment
Maybe a love note to ones husband or wife
or ones mistress making a date

One will never know
Perhaps sadly or maybe not
It could be a judgment on one that
Was stealthily moving in the darkness

Pausing quietly to steal a
Kiss from some young woman
Walking home in the early evening
Looking back to see the beautiful reaction

Would he be the one that
Had wondrous things to
Say to this generation
Would he have had the answers that we crave

We will never know
The words that were smitten
To make room for important
More important stanzas in time

Would it even be possible
To understand their ancient writings
Scrabbling's from what we are use to today
Or could they be sights wondrous to behold

Take a page our of their palimpsest's
Reuse more than our throwaway
Is it easier to use than reuse
Faster to throw than keep

Bless those of us that
Turn over and reuse
Take the trouble not to toss
And begin from scratch again

What I want to know
Is what have we learned from
The people of old, why
They never just threw it all away