Tattletale

TELL

 Tell

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ORACULAR  the  TELL

Oracular the Tell

That tells true:

The give-away,

The bodily clue.

Oracular the Sell

That sells short:

The take-away,

The news report.

Oracular the Spell,

Parturition’s truth:

Newborn sylla-babble,

Chorus of birdcalls

Redeemed forsooth.

Glory to the story

Stored in the mind.

Glorify its invention

And retention.

Glory to the tale

That rings true.

Glory to the Braille

That reads hue.

Glory to the meme:

Cat’s cradle dream

Tied up with string;

Birthday gif

That goes on giffing

"What if?" riffs on

Consummate living.

Praise consummations

Devoutly wished,

Hope’s full face

By sunlight kissed.

Praise education,

Its speechless throes;

Inculcation’s

Game disclosed

By calculation’s

Riddle posed.

Praise the singular

Exultant mind.

Singular inchoate prophecy

Predicated on philosophy.

And blessed be the ties

That bind.

Single out the hero

From the rest.

Tell his timely

Rhyme-brained quest.

Source the dragon

Worlds below.

Tell his terror

Superslow.

Source the maiden

In your dreams:

Timeless beauty’s

Theme supreme.

Tell her journey,

How she slew

The dragon

And the monster too.

(With wits attuned

She read their fear,

Made her play,

& without delay, 
Swept them away

For a year and a day.)

Tell these stories three,

Tell all,

Come the winter,

Come the fall;

Come warmer days,

Brighter nights

Tell now,

Tell now,

To heart’s delight:

Conundrum, riddle, paradox,

Singing caves and deep-time clocks,

Rhythm’s slaves,

Time’s morticians,

Terrorist knaves

In Democracy’s kitchens.

Healing of wounds

By metaphysicians;
Healing of Body Politic,
Of Tradition's divisions,

Healing of nations:
Their ghostly partitions.

But tell it all,

Tell it true.

The folly

And the pity too.

Read the best,

The oldest livros,

Read the epics

And librettos.

As the Russian said

In words that sting:

You must, you must

Know everything.

We count on you

To pass things on,

Through tales unforgettable

With your panache inimitable.

You must know everything.

Your Metamind must span it:

Containing, encoding nothing less

Than human experience

On this planet.

Spectacular your inscriptions:

Pictorial depictions,

Beatific hieroglyphics,

Stolid printing,

Discursive cursive,

Puzzles of epigraphy,

Graceful sly calligraphy.

Awe-inspiring

Your centuries of writing,

Eons’ silences requiting;

Your letters and words

Comprising worlds.

Spectacular your vernacular,

Your incarnation in the vulgate:

Restoration of a template

For a storytelling lingua franca

Figured forth in

Magna Manga.

Spectacular your libraries

The volumes that survived,

And the stories that were lost

To the drifted sands of time.

And fighting dissolution

Your armies of scribes:

Spectacular saviors of the script

We contentedly imbibe.

Spectacular your print

Stamped on the page

For comic book stories

And maxims sage.

Spectacular your bits,

Your bytes electronic:

Your net, your web, your

Wiki-garden hydroponic.

Spectacular, oracular

Vernacular in its glory:

You have the sources

The countless resources –

Now

Tell us a story.