Artists Have Their Say

No one knows why the stoneknappers
retired, reflectively, to their caves,
or sat on the far curve of a tundra
carving full-figured Venus
while glaciers sank in the steaming sea.

They could have driven horses over cliffs
and spent their days in canyons with the meat,
or speared salmon with a bone-hooked rod
or swung serrated blades at the reindeer.

No one knows why they crouched in Lascoux Cave
   with its poverty of light
and painted the Great Hall of Bulls,
or why one hafted a knife from stone
and crafted a ring of red ochre for time.

Brady Rhoades

Brady Rhoades writes poetry and short stories. His work has appeared in Visions International, Chiron Review, Comstock Review, Beacon Street Review, Bryant Literary Review, Miller’s Pond and other publications. He won an excellence in poetry award in the 2001 New Millennium Writings Contest. He lives in Southern California and works as a city editor for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.