Tapestry of Time

My reading of poem


Tapestry of Time (A Gloss)

"Life all around me here in the village: Tragedy, comedy, valor and truth, Courage, constancy, heroism, failure - All in the loom, and oh what patterns!"('Petit, the Poet,' from Spoon River Anthology)

Life all around me here in the village
A flash flood- a human inundation
Slovenly surrounds the desert hills.
Old pioneers in air-conditioned
Covered wagons, retired darlings
Life all around me here in the village

Tragedy, comedy, valor and truth
Arrive like hideous gorgons-
Distorted faces distort the landscape.
Weeble-headed Wal-Marters
Ghastly totem pole visages
Tragedy, comedy, valor and truth

Courage, constancy, heroism, failure
Four horsemen of apocalyptic bent
Ride progress’s plastic saddles-
Conquer the desert tortoise as
Custer’s army conquered the bison
Courage, constancy, heroism, failure

All in the loom, and oh, what patterns!
In with the new out with the old.
Future Shock, The Population Bomb,
Silent Spring woven throughout the town.
The tapestry of time takes its toll.
All in the loom, and oh, what patterns!