October 2021
Bio Note: I'm a retired English Professor spending my time writing, taking the occasional photograph, trying to follow the Dharma. My poetry collections A Matter of Timing, Time is Not a River and Morning Calm are all available on Amazon. A chapbook, Jack Pays a Visit, is due in September from Assure Press.
The Palm Reader
Next to a vacant lot
a house stands alone.
In the front yard looms
an ancient oak tree,
its trunk gnarled
as an old crone’s tooth.
A woman dressed
in a tie-dyed skirt
and frilly blouse
sits on the sagging porch
next to the sign
of a giant hand
covered with dotted lines
denoting sections:
will, logic, love,
line of life.
I see a bright flame
in the kitchen of her eyes,
and stuff her purse with cash,
but she has nothing to say
about the turning of wheels
or what the future might hold,
pointing, instead,
at the empty lot next door.
I watch a blackbird
on the fence
turn its head,
eyes reflective as rain,
beak open
as if to speak,
but hear only the harsh
croak of the wind
and my own breath:
line of heart
line of head.
©2021 Michael Minassian
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It is very important. -JL