Escape Into the Unknown - Devreaux Baker

[Lawrence Robinson]

Escape Into the Unknown


In the war tunnel you sit with your back pressing out 
a landscape of fear into brick and mortar.

Just outside light is wavering on the horizon
unsure if it is safe to flood this terrain.

Two dogs slowly cross the idea of what once was 
a street and walk across a field of broken buildings

headed someplace else They have joined the tribe 
of those escaping to the unknown where

there are no longer beds or chairs, refrigerators
or running water. You hold onto a kitchen in your mind;

smooth stone floors, cabinets your grandfather
built with bare hands, leveling the wood, smoothing

and shaving, humming a song that embedded notes
into the shape of drawers and doors, countertops

and hinges. You carry his song tucked into the
cabinet in the corner of the kitchen you have saved 

inside your mind. In the evening, blue light drifts
through this room and you whisper the word

twilight, that comes and goes now as a moment
held inside you along with the small sounds

of women preparing an evening meal. You hear 
their laughter that rises and falls in this place 

you are holding onto. There is the smell of rosemary 
and sumac, ginger and bay laurel. You sit in the war tunnel 

escaping the broken dream of your life by conjuring 
the kitchen of your grandmother’s house, mouthing words 

of hope, creating a landscape of the known world 
to carry with you on your escape into the unknown.
                                                                           
 	- Devreaux Baker  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/poetrylovers/attachments/20260401/c0788453/attachment.htm>