CUEING GHOST STORIES
Firelight made the obsidian blade
look like a sunset setting
into a black inkwell.
Men and women dirty
from a day of digging in the hot summer sun
sat hypnotized by the black blade.
Cans of beer from the cool cave spring
were lifted to quench thirst
and wash down accumulated dust.
Earlier in the day at the site
there was a major find
that was significant and beautiful.
The light touch of the trowel
was enough for the obsidian blade
to leap to freedom like a newborn colt.
The find caused a roar
unlike the normal stoic greeting
given a normal finding in a day's work.
As the thin smoke rose from the warming fire
the obsidian blade was passed around and
as if the smoke was peyote,
each holder had a dream.
Some of warriors off to war
one of women scraping a deer hide
and another of carving a totem.
Those who dig in the past
dream of living in the past
where they can talk to ghosts.
42 lines
DM 2012