Irreproducible Results Poem by Denis Mair

(for Bree Zlee Bodnar)

Old layered linoleum ripped from a wood floor,

who'd have known it would look so artistic?

That goes to show when things stick fast together

they won't be separated anytime soon,

without plenty of exertion on your part,

and the visual results can be pretty dramatic.

So scrape that floor or run a sanding disc,

but let some residue of that fierce adhesion remain,

like blotches on the weathered plaster

where Leonardo had his daydreams...

Once they're caught in a frame, don't lightly give away

the formula of those irreproducible results...

for they may offer consolation in hindsight.

Haleluiah! if that Kentucky lilt

could ever creep into a string of words I utter,

from the breadth of a state and over half a lifetime away.

When you hear strains of that speech

from someone who came from those parts,

you might catch a lilt too.