From Rattus: Investigation (poem)

Investigation

Think of a reasonable start

Think of property

Attribute

Value or character

Kernel, bare-bones truth

Pith, intrinsic worth, the molten core

The heart of gold, the nut

Diamond in the rough

The call, the mission, cause

Awakening

The deaf, the empty vessel, cabbage head

The beckoning dead, the comfortably seated

And you

Listening with caution for suggestions

Hoping to be excused

The two of them, our heroes, meandering

But following right angles

Street to street

Found in passing

Bursting garbage bags tall weeds

Shook, in a certain spot, welled noise

Of discontent and scanty portion

Squeaking tooth for claw and peevish

It came to them, these two, by scent

And sensibility, a body at the root of hubbub,

he or she, marketplace or mall

to vagabond nature

had been lost and wanted finding

abhorred to be lying in a vacuum

“Then we just report it”

Which they’d done

One liked to tell the story

One

Began to draw lines on a map

Taking this unsolved death as half

Her own unfinished soul

Investigation

Now Requesting Action

(2018, Stephanie Foster)