Silhouette of and by Kel C Anne Johnston
http://cargocollective.com/officeofjohnston

ICON

Impressions of you

Travel through me  

Like nerves or electricity

I pause so currents can pass

When the surge is strong

I channel your energy  

Otherwise I’m overwhelmed

And lose control

Your images 

Your words

And memories of intoxicated

Weeks lost in infatuation have

Buried me under or in your montage

Of music

Smells and multiple-choice questions

And answers

In a collage 

Listening to a sound track

Named for you

It’s easy to remember why

Your influence matters

Truth isn’t as simple as accuracy  

It’s more complicated

Often what’s never said matters most

And apotropaic rituals are all we have

To access what hides from naked vision

What if we dared to tell

What shouldn’t be spoken

And left a window open

Would others run

Covering their ears

Whisper behind our backs

And call us names

Images everywhere have captured

Who we were once

Truth pops like flash bulbs  

How do we shadow box with our past

Whoever we were got us here

Whatever we’ve become is our

Transportation to truth

Not journalistic truth but

The kind of wisdom that

Levitates from metaphors

Not conformity with fact or reality

But discovery born from rumination   

Investigation 

Exploration and surrender

Which brings me to iconography

Making truth up

From what appears to be nothing

Or what results from blind spots