Tending to Testudines

No reminding—been awhile

since I saw them turtles smile.

Guess it’s time to clean the tank,

reckon with the file and rank,

whistle harmless harmony,

lure a listen from their lee:

Walker Percy’s carapace

Mitch McConnell’s Franklin face

Steinbeck’s epic chapter three

(rapture’s wrath for you and me

traipsing ’long the thorough-fares

of ‘who are you? hell, who cares’)…

                                    Just get on with tasks at hand,

                                    governing the shiftless land,

                                    amphibious in the end,

                        fluid wisdom from a friend

            or thoughtless threats from beyond:

who knows what could bind or bond.

DMVL