Equivocal Pilgrim Poem by R. H. Peat

Equivocal Pilgrim

Dancing with the skull dancer,
holding onto his big rifle.

My fingers slip upon wood railings
as bones slide away
into a distant despair.

Did Someone come to listen
to hear the song I sing to the pulse
for all the generations —
black flies a-dance upon the moist floor.

I greet the desperate — skipping,
jumping rope in the tiled alleyway —
a shift from inner space upon the dirt road:
ghost readers at a dark lamp.

Do you hear the hidden talk of emptiness
echo within the mud dulled heart
hung between disbelief and action,
a stick stuck in sand.


Notes:
© RH Peat 3 - 5 - 1998
From: 5 Strophes - 17 lines:
(1 couplet,1 tercet,3 quatrains)
The horrors of Gulf War.
Published: 'Wanderlust:
an Anthology of Poems' Pg.171
Writers forum/ Ranchi, India 5-11-1998
Edited by Dr. Ravi Nandan Shined