Marginal Voices
Bunnies bow-hunting humans;
men racing snails, lances
lowered to spear dogs;
what prompted scribes
to ink such absurdities?
Was it the rote boredom
of copying ad nauseum
the Word, its power lost
after so many echoes?
Whose soul could tremble
as did Moses on the Mount
at the 2,000th “yea” or “nay”
scrawled by an aching wrist?
One can see the monks’ eyes
fighting sleep with filigreed
sacrilege in marginalia. . .
the wise owls’ and asses’ mischief
appears childish in this fief
of kings. Who can say what
art moves the straying hand?
In the quiet, candle-lit
hours, each drawing speaks
in a still small voice, signals
of mystery known only
to the rebel hearts that listen.
A Pushcart and Best of Net nominee, M. Benjamin Thorne is an Associate Professor of Modern European History at Wingate University. Possessed of a lifelong love of history and poetry, he is interested in exploring the synergy between the two. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Willawaw Journal, Thimble Lit Mag, Last Syllable Lit, Pictura Journal, Does It Have Pockets?, and Heimat Review. He lives and sometimes sleeps in Charlotte, NC.
Amethyst Review 