Author | Ian Wilson
In the early days, rhythm was believed
to mark the presence
of the divine. We heard
the heavy footsteps
of a pregnant array
and thought some god
couldn’t be far behind.
We were always disappointed,
a bridge of wings
and the shrill bird cries
as some of the more depressed among us
threw stones. Stones at the birds,
stones at any living thing.
All the birds escaped
but several of us died
the scene written
in the scratched
stick figures
of a cave wall.
The killers broke off from us
created their own art.
Erected large myths
of native stone.
People now find recurrence strange,
the same images in the art of those
who could not know each other.
Still no god–
paintings of chairs.
About the Author | Ian Wilson has published two chapbooks, Theme of the Parabola and The Wilson Poems, both from Hollyridge Press. His fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in many journals including The Gettysburg Review, The New Mexico Humanities Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Mid-American Review, and North American Review. He has an MFA in Fiction and in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. He is on the fiction faculty at the UCLA Extension. By day, he is an executive at Sony Pictures Entertainment.