Writings on the margin of a book by Alan Jazmines

Writings on the margin of a book  

                                   by Alan Jazmines

 

Writings on the margin of a book

have a lot in common

with guerrillas

 

They come from nowhere

and from all directions

suddenly are spread out

over white areas.

 

Unmeasured by ens and ems

they are a ragtag lot,

do not march in letterpress order

nor go by the rules of the book.

 

Not simply black on white

they emerge in their own styles,

dialects and colors

and not only in red

(Observe the curls

that fly unshaven

in defiant fashion)

 

Unfettered by column inches

and flush rights

they grow infinitely

drawing from a well-spring

of creativity

even  if sometimes ungrammared

unlettered

 

At will

they waylay precisely

clumsy targets

encircled and crosshaired

for annihilation

 

A burst

of exclamation points

or questions marks

may blow up whole structures

but it usually takes

a  rapid fussilade

of unmistakable tirades

to send their targets

back to  pulp

 

What is decisive

is intimacy to the issue

in the native heart

and the grassroots facts

uncouth, unshod

with no fear

of censors

or the military

 

No matter erudition

stereotypes holding on

to fixed positions

cannot escape

the scrutiny and force

of new ideas and critiques

resolute in their challenge

for the rule.

 

In time

the writings on the margin of the book

are  established;

a new book

supersedes the old.

And then there will be new and different writings

On the margins of this book.

–         Alan Jazmines