Seth Ketchem

Blacksmith’s Quandary
 
didn’t say words;
used them.
took white light and caged stars--
boxed them in.
burned them out.
used words to terraform
and waged war on gleam.
cried,
 
[
Light was never meant to be seen, but spoken.
Air was never meant to carry the burden, but the sky.
Nothing is as bright as blindness.
]
 
these words used,
forged in iron,
cast in bronze,
shined only at night
when the face of the sun was a stranger,
and the taste of a fire, a memory.



Seth Ketchem has a short story, "Machines of Machinations," published under The Kenwood Publishing Group. He is currently on academic leave from The Ohio State University due to the pandemic, one semester away from completing a degree in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Ketchem works for the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and when not busy shelving books, he has his nose stuck in them.