By John Lee Clark

Near the Naked Juices I passed
A man my fingers walking
Across his back he turned and held up
A box said what
Might this be I said oh
You’re tactile too what’s your name
He said William Amos Miller I said
I thought you were born in 1872 he said so
You know who I am yes you’re the man
Who journeyed to the center of Earth
In your mind he smiled on my arm said do
You know that the Earth also journeyed
To the center of my mind I said
I never thought of that he asked
Again about the box I shook it sniffed
Said Mike and Ike is it fruit
He inquired not exactly well
I think I shall have an apple wait
You haven’t paid oh
My money nowadays is no money he pushed
Outside we walked across the ice
To the intersection he made to go across
Wait you can’t go across we have to wait
For help oh help he said crouching
Until our hands touched the cold ground
He said I said we said we see
With our hands I jumped up and said you’re the man

• Arts & Sciences

Poet Bio

John Lee Clark is a DeafBlind poet, essayist, and independent scholar from Minnesota. Clark was a featured writer at the Deaf Way II International Cultural Arts Festival, and has won grants and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, VSA Minnesota, the Laurent Clerc Cultural Fund, Intermedia Arts Center, and The Loft Literary Center. He was a finalist for the 2016 Split This Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry and Activism. Clark lives in Hopkins, Minnesota with his wife, the artist Adrean Clark, and their three boys. He works for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development as a Braille and Protactile instructor.  See More By This Poet

More Poems about Arts & Sciences