LIZARD TONGUES
what if religious nutjobs
who whoop and holler in tongues
weren’t real nutjobs at all
but idiot savants who
spew from their faithful frothing
minds a presumed heavenly
language that can only be
described as a gibberish
when what was actually
uttered was a bona fide
ancient alien language
that lay dormant buried deep
in our ancient lizard brains
deep down in the basilar
brainstem from when we were brought
or dropped off on this planet
an extinct latent language
that only the dinosaurs
last heard in supplication
to the gods to intervene
to stop their mass extinction
—from Rattle #72, Summer 2021
Tribute to Appalachian Poets
__________
Raymond Hammond: “I was born, raised, and lived in Appalachia for the first half of my life. Appalachia culture gave me the lyrical lilt of mountain folk, potato soup suppers with spontaneous folk music, fire and brimstone homilies and hymns, and the ability to spin a story using metaphors every which way from Sunday. The Appalachian Mountains themselves gave me solace in solitude and a faith in something greater than religion.” (web)
