The Voice of the Turtle - Doug von Koss

[Lawrence 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 ‘til 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 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
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