One Thing Leads to Another, by Alarie Tennille

Small Rebus, by Robert Rauschenberg (USA), 1956.

One Thing Leads to Another

Every stray thought
sets off a slide show –

each frame a collage
of random association. A smell,

a twinge, even the word “horse”
excavates hidden ore

from the gray matter. A horse,
if not a dozen, will appear

along with acrobats from the same
circus, a runner rounding the track.

Stamps, even wallpaper may surface.
Impossible to catch or sort it all.

Alarie Tennille

This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge.

Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com.