(no subject)

[badstar]

Departing

Moving on again, the stranger glances
back at the edge of town,
studies the sky,
then looks to the horizon.
Absently, he adjusts his cap
and ties his shoelace then rifles through his pack
until he finds what he needs
and tosses it on the ground.
Briefly, he studies this carefully-planned
appearance of carelessness.
Vaguely amused with himself, a ghost of smile
momentarily turns up the corners of his lips.

Movement catches his eye and at the roadside,
he notices a tortoise peeking out from its shell.
He nods, no need to bother this one:
the lyre has already been invented.
And besides, keeping the cattle would only have tied him
to a farm.

Satisfied, he pulls his coat a little tighter around him
and gives one last quick look at the discarded trinket-
an unremarkable key- to what lock, it doesn't much matter.
He hurries away down the road, wanting to be gone from sight-
the recipient of his little present will be along shortly to find it,
will not know yet what it means
or who it's from.
But his target will recognize it for a gift
and follow in search
of the traveler who left it.

(I am also going to post this over at http://almostseen.wordpress.com...time to start making use of that one.)

Comments

[bluedolfyn.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. Thank you for sharing it with us. :)

[erl-queen.livejournal.com]

Love this one. Love the idea of imagining the origin of such omens we find.