By Patrick Theron Erickson

Artwork by Susan Peters

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To make way
for new verities

the old verities
will have to go

making light of them
and neither hide nor hair
old or new

like stepping into
the Cave of Altamira
with lighted lamp
in hand

The bison
will lead the way

the bison, the deer
the stick-figure human hunters

larger than life
in the flickering cavern

though their bones whiten
somewhere ice ages since

Picasso is right
After Altamira all is decadence
–we have invented nothing

What’s to invent?

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