poem

(untitled)

Can you believe all the decades

you believed the Sumerians

were just cute little farmers

and artisans, funny looking

people with blue eyes and black beards,

always standing with their

hands clasped at the solar plexus

as if at the ready to serve;

and you never knew

of the disputations

of the plow and the hoe,

the poplar and ash

the palm and vine;

you never knew; where now

the sculptures with pupils

as large as saucers

finally make sense.