“Dust to Dust” by George Pestana

July 19, 2023Posted by

George Pestana (OddWritings)

DUST TO DUST

Dust the tracks
that mouse or men discarded thoughtlessly
behind them, left that those of one
who cracks the code may hack some clue. A
shell’s tortoise shambles; a life’s conclusion
dithyrambles. “What is false is truth,” say
disembodied youth, death their honor forever,
breath their only sometimes companion. Their
ages many struggle to reconcile; some fear
the wages war offers come in coffins;
coffers more like.  Anyone would ask
kings why it is greed bleeds bones
leeching for life on hands
feeding poppies, by sunlit
fields, killing. The
dawn crows at
cowards: lie
still
lie cowards.
At crow’s dawn
the killing fields,
sunlit by poppies, feeding,
hands on life, for leeching
bones bleeds greed. Is it why kings
ask, “Would anyone like more coffers?
Coffins?”  In come offers. War wages the
fear some reconcile to struggle many ages,
their companion sometimes only their breath.
Forever honor their death.  Youth disembodied
say “Truth is, false is what dithyrambles.”
Conclusion: life’s a shambles. Tortoise shell’s
a clue—some hack may code the cracks. Who?
One of those that left them behind
(thoughtlessly discarded men), or mouse that
tracks the dust.
 

foundation.app | image/avif

“Dust to Dust” is a word-unit palindrome poem which explores the themes of war, fate, death, and multiple forms of cowardice.

—from Rattle #80, Summer 2023
Tribute to NFT Poets

__________

George Pestana (OddWritings): “I write NFT poems because their authorship can be easily proven using blockchain explorers and wallets; I write them because the technology behind them can allow their presentation to change according to the viewing device (so for example an app representing a print-only publication can display the NFT as text, while an app representing an audio player can play the same NFT as spoken word, and an app representing a television can play the same NFT as a movie, so long as I create layers in the NFT for all of those possibilities); I write them because the technology behind them can allow their presentation to change according to external factors, such as the current weather of the place where the viewing device exists, or the state of the stock market, or the time of day where the viewing device exists, or any other data derivable from public sources (for more info, look up ‘dynamic NFTs’ in a search engine); and I write them because society has not yet conceived of all possible use cases of NFTs, which means that by incorporating poems into NFTs, now I am one step ahead of the curve so to speak, and prepared for the future.” (web)

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