Poem: "Look Now" ("Alas we live in the Age of Cupcakes.")

Lot's wife, courtesy of Evidence Ministries.

Scythe, an online journal which published many wonderful poets, is no more; Joe Milford, editor.

Look Now

The past is behind us, dear, down the block,

slumped beneath yon greeny elm, bereft as

Peter Pan’s shadow stuck amongst children’s

knickers and feeling separated-at-birth-ish.

No no, don’t look back.  (The that-was-then is

over with its hot-asphalt August allure

ever rankly receding as if its mother’d

never remonstrated Skulking’s unbecoming.)

Not everyone is well-raised as we, my love, and

don’t say you haven’t noticed.

I hear good Lot’s wife to whom was said

Eyes forward became all salt, all the time,

salty of tongue as a pirate yet pillar of

the salt community until to legend licked.

What’s the past to say we haven’t surmised

from our shadows at 5 o’clock fore & aft?

Sure we’d like that recipe for Old Witch Cake

with canned pumpkin our sister baked.

Alas we live in the Age of Cupcakes.

Those who know the past are likely as those

who don’t to forget to bake at 350o ‘til springy

to touch.  I’d wager Madame Lot,

like Orpheus, figured So few in authority

ever speak truth, what’re the odds this time.

 .............
Sarah Sarai, first published Scythe, Issue IV, 2011