The Ladder
He worked for years on the tablet,
deciphering the pictographs. He knew
it was a kind of language, those images.
An eye. A bird, maybe a crow.
A basket of wheat, a ladder.
Did the order of these images matter?
He cross-referenced similar texts.
He studied the history of the region
and satisfied many hours in the tablet’s service.
In a cousin language, a ladder
was the word for happiness, to rise up,
to be lifted out of the ordinary.
After years of work, he sorted it out.
It was poetry, bad poetry, adolescent.
It read: “Today I am happy,
happy all this day, today.”
–Michael Chitwood
Brightenthecorner 