Amos poeticizes a painting

Editor’s note: Amos, the erstwhile poetic church mouse, types by hurling himself at the keys, but he can’t use the capital shift keys and he shuns punctuation marks — except the hyphens and dashes. Lately, Amos has been having a tough time gaining inspiration for his writing. He has tried a number of suggestions to get rid of his writer’s block, including some warm milk and cheese late at night, but it just fed his insomnia. He tried tying bows on his tail, but he kept getting himself hung up on doorknobs, rocks and sticks in the church yard. He even tried his grandmother’s suggestion of prune juice, but it didn’t exactly create a run of ideas. Amos didn’t know where to turn next, so he took a walk outside.

amos poeticizes a painting

the other day i stumbled

across a ripped-out page

from the m encyclopedia

boss and it intrigued me

on the ripped-out page

it had a picture of a

painting created by the

famous renaissance

artist michelangelo

it was called the creation

of adam and it was

enthralling i couldn t

get away from it

its images haunted me

the rest of the day

finally i had to do

something about it - and

the only thing i know how

to do boss is write

something so this is

what came out

across the gray

immensity of time

the hand of i am descended

to build a world

of cold atoms

of dead mountains

of tormented seas

and a clay robot as

master of it all

but into this

falsely-animated

chaotic dark and

meaningless mass

stretched this time

the hand of love

to touch life to the

soul of man

so there it was boss

although it certainly

does no justice to

the work itself

as i stood staring at

the painting and at

my poem freddy the

flea hopped across the page

hey what s this says he

it s a painting of the

creation of adam says i

and you wrote a poem

about it says freddy can

i read it

sure if you want to says

i a bit embarrassed

i don t understand it

says he what does it mean

it just says that god

created humankind says i

even more embarrassed

but isn t that who created

you and me too says he

is that what makes human

beings so special

yeah i guess so says i

and then i thought for a

moment that s what makes

anybody special

with that freddy hopped

happily away and i

returned to stare at

that glorious painting

boss wishing i could

see the real thing at the

sistine chapel someday

such are the hopes and

dreams of the church

pew underworld

amos