The Voice of the Turtle - Doug von Koss

[Larry Robinson]

The Voice of the Turtle
 
And the voice of the turtle
   shall be heard in the land
 
Oh, I know it means the turtle dove
   I know that now, but I didn’t then
   when I was eight years old
 
My imagination ran wild
 
I had only seen one turtle close up
   one of those dime store turtles
   no bigger than a quarter
   that you bought for twenty cents in June
   that lived almost a month
   in a pan on the back porch
   with three pebbles and a flat rock
   for company and comfort
 
If you were lucky
   it would live ‘till fall
   then your heart would break
   when your Dad carried it away
   to an uncertain end
 
My turtle never sang
   and it was not that I didn’t listen
   Maybe he only sang at sunrise
   I tried that only once and not a peep
 
A dead fly didn’t send his
   turtle heart to singing either
   no sound escaped his hawky jaw
   as he chomped an iridescent wing
 
Fresh water, a lettuce leaf
   even a bug I didn’t know
   left him uninspired and mute
 
I listened so hard for that turtle’s voice
   maybe my ears were too small or too big
   maybe he was too young to sing or
   just maybe he had nothing to sing about
   in his chipped enamel pan
 
I heard others singing though
   grey wrens in the cherry tree
   Dad as he pruned the tomatoes
   even the dog groaning content
   in the shade under the porch
 
And the voice of the turtle
    shall be heard in the land
 
Maybe we were both too young
     he to sing it and me to hear
     what still must be a glorious sound
     to the ear
 
Another time, another place
 
Perhaps some other turtle
   in some other land
   is singing a great low note to God
 
Some other turtle I guess
   in some other land
 
            - Doug von Koss