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“Thoughts Chelonian”, a poem by Altivo Overo (read by Madison Scott-Clary)
Today’s poem is by Altivo Overo, which first appeared in Civilized Beasts, volume II, called “Thoughts Chelonian”, read for you by Madison Scott-Clary, whose tail is behind her.
Transcript
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.
Speaker:And today’s poem is by Altivo Overo,
Speaker:which first appeared in Civilized Beasts,
Speaker:volume II, called
Speaker:“Thoughts Chelonian”,
Speaker:read for you by Madison Scott-Clary,
Speaker:whose tail is behind her.
Speaker:Please enjoy “Thoughts Chelonian”,
Speaker:a poem by Altivo Overo Thoughts Chelonian
Speaker:Ten hundred hundred times the wandering sun Has darkened,
Speaker:vanished without trace,
Speaker:returned; And though my time grows short at least I know My life is writ in arcane symbols turned Into th'enspiraled
Speaker:patterns of my shell.
Speaker:O strangely graven Carapace,
Speaker:speak thou well.
Speaker:That hasty, wastrel, upstart race called Man,
Speaker:With life so short as just a single gasp,
Speaker:Despoils the honest earth,
Speaker:the sea, the sky. Poisons all the world as might an asp On whom have carelessly trodden all,
Speaker:So thus from whom the bitter end will fall.
Speaker:We, the shell-locked tortoises,
Speaker:survived Much longer,
Speaker:watching, keeping without fail Upon our shells the twisting lines that speak A long unfolding,
Speaker:slow, and bitter tale.
Speaker:It tells an ageless story
Speaker:and the fate Of all who would themselves be named
Speaker:as great. The universe moves on,
Speaker:that writing says
Speaker:And pauses not to hear a muttered spell,
Speaker:Nor listens ever to a desperate cry,
Speaker:Nor heeds the solemn death bell's knell.
Speaker:Yet in the starlight,
Speaker:graven 'pon a shell,
Speaker:The ancient history
Speaker:is told full well.
Speaker:A life lived ever slowly,
Speaker:one lived fast, Are both
Speaker:ere long just doomed
Speaker:to be the past. This was
Speaker:“Thoughts Chelonian”
Speaker:by Altivo Overo,
