If to a hammer everything’s a nail,
Then to a nail everything’s unfixed.
To the unfixed the world is storybook,
And to storybooks love is to be read.
To be read is to be fixed, to be nailed,
To be hammered to wall or post or pike,
The sign underneath the skull
Roosted at its top, with one message
For all who can read it: Be ye warned.
Be ye warned: The eye takes in the news
Then the mouth starts to repeat it.
CM DAVIDSON's poetry and writing have appeared in Zyzzyva, Spoon River Poetry Review, Zocalo Public Square, The Rumpus, and Jacket2. He lives in Orange County, CA, with his family.
