Sooner or Later Everyone Sits Down to a Banquet of Consequences

Sooner or Later Everyone Sits Down

to a Banquet of Consequences

Matthew Miller

Based on the painting "The Ghost of Samuel Appearing to Saul" by William Blake and a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson

The spirit says nothing
new, the old man robed
in marbled white like a silent
statue. Says look at your empty
hands. Says disturbed.
Says my name. Deathly stiff
fingers spread the paths
ahead. There is nothing left
but to fall on this earth.
Blackout corners
are closing, like the eye
of this generation shutting on me,
no longer answering through
prophets, dreams, the Urim.
The wild quiet is terror,
it means I already know.
Consequences sketched
like pen and ink on stone.
Fear of tomorrow rolls me
back to my heels, strength and
power going. The witch lies
a banquet before my grasp,
but I don’t want to eat anymore.

---

Matthew Miller
Poet & Teacher

Matthew teaches social studies, swings tennis rackets, and writes poetry - all hoping to create home. He and his wife live beside a dilapidating orchard in Indiana, where he tries to shape dead trees into playhouses for his four boys. His poetry has been featured in Whale Road Review, River Mouth Review, and EcoTheo Review. His poetry can be found at mattleemiller.wixsite.com/poetry and on Twitter: @mattleemiller32.

Painting by William Blake