Linear History

by Arthur Mampel

Would she bring me a dictionary
and she did;
the word in question

was “linear.” I recall
some professor
saying the Hebrew wrote

a linear history that went
straight to the heart
of the matter, without

the complexity of diversion,
without the cloudy logistics
of true science,

a history of story and metaphor
so much finer than the dull
telling of reality,

filling the mind
with questions
never-ending,

diverting it to less
important views that confuse
and gloss over the mysterious.

A crow on a straight flight over land
is like the soul’s
undaunted quest for place.