I’ve always said God is an author
or the imagination of a writer is God.
We write humans onto the scene
with trees they cannot climb and roots
they cannot see linking an internal string
of hallelujahs. Sometimes to erase sunrise
it is necessary to toss a scalpel at the sky.
We bend rivulets and tributaries of truth
in microscopes, on stages. We take a pen
to wars and swords to prophets to scrub
the tales and stains, endless edits of pain.
The desire to overwrite hereditary traits
could unravel the history of unspoken
regrets in a love letter for our children.
Martin Ott has published eight books of poetry and fiction, most recently Lessons in Camouflage (C&R Press, 2018). His first two poetry collections won the De Novo and Sandeen Prizes. His work has appeared in more than two hundred magazines and fifteen anthologies.