Jack Scott writes

One Black Swan (pt 1)

                                   Despite the testimony

                                            of my senses

                                    theory rules the stage

                              and disciplines imagination.

                                        How should it feel

                                             to confront

                                          impossibility?

My first time there, a happening by chance,

a roadside sign, an impulse

on my way to fishing further down the road,

a turnoff ending at the water and there, a house,

one room of which an improvised museum,

a menagerie of body parts of once living things

long dead, shadows of their former substances

now consigned to picture books.

On the walls and in the cases,

democratically displayed,

fragments of the common and the extraordinary

predators and prey,

teeth and bones and “footprints”

of these and other remnants

of smaller forms of extinct life:

clam and oyster shells, barnacles and coral.

The proprietor - collector, custodian and warden -

would let you touch things as long as he was watching.   

This was his home, his hobby and his livelihood.                     

There was a charge to enter and enjoy                          

(less than for a movie).

Before and after you were free

to prowl the beach and prospect.                   

Included was a map, but would it be needed?

How could you fail to find the beach you’re on                            

or get lost once there?

                                                   

Rustic, clean and neat:                                   

hand lettered captions,

brochures without hype

and the old man’s stories.

This was his culmination,

obviously his favorite things   

in which he took a raconteur’s delight.         

Impressive to my ignorance,

he opened up his world to me.

                  

Made curious,

I chose to spend some time exploring it.

He urged me on, warning of the cliffs:

don’t get too close or try to climb them;

they’re dangerous;

some have died in the attempt.

Stick to the beach and surf,

you’ll find lots of fossils there

shed by the precipice,

churned clean by the waves.

Help yourself to what you find,

it’s yours there for the taking.                                                 

This was so new to me;

I’d driven past a hundred times

without knowing it was there.

I felt childlike starting out.  

Here was a candy store, a Christmas morning,

a cornucopia, a portal into wonder.