we said begin
and brass trumpets
rang loud the chords
of mellifluous history
we sang to the echoes
in Earth-baked stone
- monuments to yesterday
the lichen rusk of them.
And so doing
we cooked ourselves into the past
yeast-rich and puffy
in these bread-crust prisons...
squared off and sweating
like those great
toothy coal shrines
puffing plaque into the decaying sky.
But now, fiddles to chins,
let us shimmy softly
be ushered through doorways
to whispers of patios
cool as evening
as sweet melody looses
time's indigo spool
that we may ungrip the past
future’s unfurling ribbon
in the shigga shigga blue
Written for Ingrid’s Earthweal Challenge – “Anthropocene Labyrinth” – dancing our way out…
Out of the Cave 
What a GLORIOUS mix of words and imagery. This poem trips down the page the way that bow plays the fiddle. Awesome!
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Thank you, Sherry!! So glad you liked it. 🙂
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Thanks, Sal!
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I love your unusual imagery here, mixing music with food and dance! ‘ let us shimmy softly’ – I think this is most necessary if we are to make it through the Anthropocene labyrinth.
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Amazing! So many incredible lines: “we sang to the echoes in Earth-baked stone”; “We cooked ourselves into the past”; “toothy coal shrines puffing plaque into decaying skies”
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Thank you!! ❤️ So glad you liked it.
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JYP is spot on Worms. That lovely image of cooking ourselves into the past is awesome.👏👏
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Many thanks. I have been chief bread chef in lock down. I guess I’ve felt cooked in. 😂😉
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It was the best of a beautiful collection of images. 🙂
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Thank you. I am so glad you liked the poem. I worked jolly hard at that. It was done in bouts like a fight. Biff Biff Biff. Ach. Stuck. Play Solitaire. And back to it … Biff Biff Biff. Finally went to bed and was able to revisit this morning with greater success.
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I’m glad that the biff, biff, biffing paid off! 🤣
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Hee hee hee. I’m such a rough’n’tumble poet.
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🤣
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I have a similar feeling when I cook Christmas dinner. The past comes back in waves, the scents, the sounds, the food that becomes more than tradition. Lovely poem, Worms.
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Thanks, Misky! ❤
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A fabulous wordfest and an unique viision takkki g us i to the future.
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Thanks! ❤️
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We have locked in a cooked future with our mastery, nothing left to that path but the minotaur’s jaw buffet … At Knossos the meander eventually led to a high outdoor court “in the jigga jigga blue.” Up and out into the sunlight of the spirit. How do we hold on through this? We let go … A nice victory dance here.
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Thank you, Brendan. 🙂
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ungripping the past…an excellent idea, and music is definitely necessary. (K)
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Thank you!
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“ungrip the past” and “future’s unfurling ribbon” wonderful. may it come to pass.
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Thanks. I hope so.
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You’re welcome.
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let us shimmy softly
be ushered through doorways
I hope those doorways are to a better place and time.
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Don’t we all!!
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shigga shigga blue….that will stay in my head and become part of my vernacular….I don’t know what it means but I love it:)
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Cool! 😎. I was imagining the sound of ribbon or tape unfurling. That’s where shigga shigga came from. 🙂
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shigga shigga blue…love this…going to become part of my venacular.
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This is spectacular. So much said here, and in such an interesting, and engaging way! Bravo!
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Thanks, Rob. Much appreciated!
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