That a Beast Would Look Skyward

William Haskins

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We are old enough to know better by now,
twelve thousand years from the Crescent
and counting. We stood and we looked
God dead in the eye, and then we grew
taller still. And still

something in my blood recalls
the tall-grass escape
to the tops of trees,
to plot on prey
and enemies-

I remain a sharpened spear.
 

CassandraW

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You are indeed a sharpened spear -- though too many, alas, remain mere heavy rocks hurled from within a cave.

A wonderfully evocative piece about the primitive instincts that lurk just behind our veneer of civilization. We may look skyward, but some part of us remains a beast in the tall grass. The last line is killer, and I love this

twelve thousand years from the Crescent
and counting

and this

the tall-grass escape
to the tops of trees,
to plot on prey
and enemies
 
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Stew21

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I read this early this morning and read it again and again over coffee. (Loving it more each time.)
Then work got too hectic (it was a miss lunch day) and I never commented on your amazing poem.
I'm so sorry I didn't take the opportunity to give you the immediate reaction.
There are too many praises i could
lay on this. And they would weigh it down. (This right word. cadence. That one amazingly timed rhyme)
But it is timely, universal, and incredibly effective.
My reaction this morning was that the poem was unmistakably yours, that i anticipated the end with dread and with joy but couldn't guess your ending (love the unpredictable), and that the last made me feel lucky to be challenged by your words and a i am probably a better poet by having read it.
I'm in earnest.
This and so much of your work inspires, challenges, and surprises. But i read it and always know if it was yours
 

Sarita

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I feel the need to personally thank you each time you exquisitely pull anthropology into poetry, because it's such a natural connection to me. Also, the line that starts with "God dead" made me gasp and blush. I love that little push on my atheist brain.
 

Perks

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We went into the tree and we came out of the trees eventually. And we brought the spears with us, yeah?

I love this. Shocked, I know.