Optical Illusion
In 1924 on the southside
of Nineteenth Street between Chester and Eye
the Pastime Theatre unveiled a sign
promoting the latest wise-guy
feature, but fourteen million years ago,
this was all a shallow saltwater sea
starring sea lion and shark, a dumbshow
one can excavate from Ant Hill to reel
in whale song, salt on the tongue, vertebrae
the temperature of sedimentary
Miocene siltstone, a fossil bouquet
the color of your slow trajectory
through anniversary sales and visits,
for glaucoma, to the optometrist.
~Matthew Woodman
Matthew Woodman, Kern County Poet Laureate, teaches writing at California State University, Bakersfield and is the founding editor of the journal Rabid Oak. He has work forthcoming in Counterclock and Dryland, and more of his writing can be found at www.matthewwoodman.com.
Love the movement through time and space.