No Tongue

there’s no tongue

in their shoes – just holes

rain seeps in

no bells chime

but the message in their eyes

is ringing clearly

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

Image found onwww.theguardian.com

My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond – September 10, 2016

Thank you, Candy, for filling in for Bastet and Paloma, and for sharing the poem by Lisel Mueller to inspire our shadorma.

Things

What happened is, we grew lonely
living among the things,
so we gave the clock as face,
the chair a back,
the table four stout legs
which will never suffer fatigue.

We fitted our shoes with tongues
as smooth as our own
and hung tongues inside bells
so we could listen
to their emotional language

and because we loved graceful profiles
the pitcher received a lip,
the bottle a long slender neck.

Even what was beyond us
was recast in our image,
we gave the country a heart,
the storm an eye.
the cave a mouth
so we could pass into safety.

© Lisel Mueller