A poem is storing and storying the past.
A striking image in your mind that lasts.
A cave drawing from prehistoric times.
A window to the past, but the window's open,
and you can almost reach out and touch it.
An artifact that doesn't age,
that doesn't get confined to a dusty, old museum.
A one page textbook of few words.
A song meant to be sung years after its writer dies.
The best rare collectable that money can buy.
A real and working time machine,
that transports you into a person's mind.
A dumpster of "another man's treasure".
An atomic bomb - a force beyond measure.
A skeleton from the closet of another soul.
An old, grainy, black-and-white film of a stranger's eyes.
A brick wall with graffiti on it.
Wearing a dead man's disco gear.
A high school bathroom wall.
A discovery of hidden secrets.
And, beyond all, a poem is a one-minute diary.