What Right Do Meanings Have To Hide Behind the Things We See – a poem by Rich Boucher

What Right Do Meanings Have
To Hide Behind The Things We See



I saw the alchemy symbol for 
the first breath we breathe
on a bumper sticker
that was on an ambulance 
that was on a busy street
last week

and in that moment 
I knew I’d never get smart enough
to define the one and only meaning
behind what I saw
which, I mean, honestly

is exactly the sort of predicament
that could make you 
start a religion 
without even realizing
that all you had to do
was maybe tell just one other person
to get the whole ball of waxing Moons rolling

and so I guess I’ll tell you
that lately my work days 
get me up before the Sun 
can come through my window,
and this morning
when the gold light shined in
and began to give me some shadows to see
the sunlight through the lace of the window curtain
made this pattern on the wall
that looked precisely and frighteningly 
like the alchemy symbol for honey, 
two fish kissing each other in profile,
the one on the left frowning,
the one on the right smiling,
and I debated on whether to mention it to anyone
until now and so since you are technically anyone
what do you think it all means
or maybe at least can you tell me
what some of it might mean

Rich Boucher resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rich’s poems have appeared in Bending Genres, Menacing Hedgeand Stink Eye, among others, and he has work forthcoming in Boats Against The Current. Rich is BOMBFIRE Magazine’s Associate Editor, and he is the author of All Of This Candy Belongs To Me.