Poem of the Day: "Thumbtacks & Footnotes" by David Pring-Mill, Frequent Contributor

Thumbtacks & Footnotes

David Pring-Mill

Now let us pay tribute

to thumbtacks and footnotes!

Posted and postponed,

these details of dreams

exist, in adjunct form.

with notes transcending

the transcendent!

Thumbtacks of plastic,

thumbtacks of steel,

thumbtacks of nickel and tin,

with little handles, domed, flat,

spherical, cylindrical,

all engineered

under the premise

that knowledge must be stabbed.

Impressionable cork

executes such brutal justice.

But there is redemption here:

Information embedded

into matter,

away from the lures

of digital nothingness,

held up with the sharpness

and reality

of one tiny spike

that could draw

blood from thumbs.

And the dreaded footnote

functions in the same respect.

An afterthought,

for the bigger thought.

The bigger thought

is conceived originally,

or in conjunction.

The bigger thought

is granted eminence,

and structure,

yet is by some measure

incomplete,

requiring greater context

and detail.

There is a weakness underlying

its importance;

or an enhancement

to be had.

The greatest of literature

transforms behavior,

and so with care and dignity,

the footnote presides

in its lower margins.

Ignored, by most,

Imprisoned

to a different font and space.

Poet's Notes:  I enjoy searching for poetry and amusement in unexpected places. "Thumbtacks & Footnotes" came out of that ongoing quest.