by Mary E. Lowd
An essay of thoughts I composed
When my thoughts
Were more pictures than words
But that I’m finding my way
Back through now
Winding and wending
And peeling the patina of words off
Of the yellow brick road of imagery
One image after another
Hanging like ornaments on a tree
As much as they are like bricks in a road
The thoughts are a moment from my past
As crystal bright now
As it ever was
Just farther away
Making it smaller in a way
And people who used to be solid and real
Three dimensional
But now become paper dolls
That flutter away like the flashing pictures
In the retroactive slide show
They show every year at the oscars
Showing everyone who died
But instead of dying
They just passed out of my life
And yet they still hang there
Ornaments on my tree
Bricks in my spiraling path
That loops through and through the woods
Is it too many images?
Should I pick just a few?
And focus on my thesis
Or central theme
Well joke’s on you because
I don’t have one only
A winding path of words
That marks out my conscious mind