Artifacts

Mere artifacts, neurologists tell us—

Mental acrobatics, ungrounded

The flickers of color

ever shifting

from cascades of flax or silk

Runic daemon shadows

in the junctions

where cathedral arches clasp each other

Gleamings through

the glaze

to irregularities in the pottery

Overtones that

intrude between beats

of marimbas

Nebulae

of muddied memories

in our own first moments of waking

Are they not real?

These make up the arty facts we love the most

And relive over and over

Andy Oram
March 11, 2025