Universal Sign
Mary Winters
Sometimes a found thing,
or a lost thing an act, or, of course, an omission
an event, private, or an event, public
is clearly meant as an omen --
you couldn't mistake it for anything else.
The problem: interpreting the news
when an alien omen gets sent --
one that is auspicious only in
another culture, time or place.
A few, though, are universal,
transcend a specific setting --
like that dead bird you saw
jammed head downward in a sidewalk grate.
It fell off the world--
and so you better watch out.
