Skip to content

Ecce Signum

Immanentize the Empathy

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Published Works and Literary Matters
  • Indexes
  • Laboratory

Stump

2007-04-29 John Winkelman

070429_stump

In the stump of the old tree, where the heart has rotted out, there is a hole the length of a man’s arm, and a dank pool at the bottom of it where the rain gathers, and the old leaves turn into lacy skeletons. But do not put your hand down to see, because

in the stumps of old trees, where the hearts have rotted out, there are holes the length of a man’s arm, and dank pools at the bottom where the rain gathers and old leaves turn to lace, and the beak of a dead bird gapes like a trap. But do not put your hand down to see, because

in the stumps of old trees with rotten hearts, where the rain gathers and the laced leaves and the dead bird like a trap, there are holes the length of a man’s arm, and in every crevice of the rotten wood grow weasel’s eyes like molluscs, their lids open and shut with the tide. But do not put your hand down to see, because

in the stumps of old trees where the rain gathers and the trapped leaves and the beak and the laced weasel’s eyes, there are holes the length of a man’s arm, and at the bottom a sodden bible written in the language of rooks. But do not put your hand down to see, because

in the stumps of old trees where the hearts have rotted out there are holes the length of a man’s arm where the weasels are trapped and the letters of the rook language are laced on the sodden leaves, and at the bottom there is a man’s arm. But do not put your hand down to see, because

in the stumps of old trees where the hearts have rotted out there are deep holes and dank pools where the rain gathers, and if you ever put your hand down to see, you can wipe it in the sharp grass till it bleeds, but you’ll never want to eat with it again.

–Hugh Sykes-Davies

Posted in Literary MattersTagged poetry

Post navigation

Exhilerating or Frightening?
Mite

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Personal website of
John Winkelman

John Winkelman in a diner in San Francisco

Archives

Categories

Posts By Month

April 2007
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Feb   May »

Twitter Feed

JohnWinkelmanJohn Winkelman@JohnWinkelman·
2 Jul

Currently reading. #andrésneuman #restlessbooks #amreading

Reply on Twitter 1543221433966465028Retweet on Twitter 1543221433966465028Like on Twitter 1543221433966465028Twitter 1543221433966465028
JohnWinkelmanJohn Winkelman@JohnWinkelman·
1 Jul

What I read in June 2022. #janellemonae #thememorylibrarian #kameronhurley #githahariharan #dyerivespoetry #parisreview #poetry #amreading

Reply on Twitter 1542946221391847424Retweet on Twitter 15429462213918474241Like on Twitter 15429462213918474244Twitter 1542946221391847424
Retweet on TwitterJohn Winkelman Retweeted
weirdlilguyscats being weird little guys@weirdlilguys·
27 Jun

Hi everyone - taking some time off to mourn the loss of half the country’s rights and status as free citizens in America.

Please do what you can to support groups helping those that will now need to travel for reproductive care, like the @BrigidAlliance
https://brigidalliance.org/donate/

Reply on Twitter 1541407247175229442Retweet on Twitter 1541407247175229442415Like on Twitter 15414072471752294424570Twitter 1541407247175229442
Load More...

Links of Note

Reading, Writing
Tor.com
Locus Online
The Believer
File 770
IWSG

Watching, Listening
WYCE Electric Poetry
Writing Excuses Podcast
Our Opinions Are Correct

News, Politics, Economics
Naked Capitalism
Crooked Timber

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© 2022 Ecce Signum

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: x-blog by wpthemespace.com