Discovering, Questioning, Talking and Imagining: Writing Nonfiction

by Charlie Otting

Arrowhead

I’ve always hoped

that one day

I would find

an arrowhead

digging through

an ancient compost heap

in my yard

at the bottom of the hillside

where the narrow creek bed

sometimes overflows

at the foot of the grand

sycamore

I would scrape away

the layers of brown clay

with my thumbnail

I’d carefully run

my fingertip

along the edge

testing its sharpness

I’d wonder who

crafted this fine

object where it was

made what rock

it was shaped from

I’d think about

the last time it was

used why it ended up

here

I’d ask that farmer

who lives down Zion Rd.

what he thinks

and he’d show me

his collection

and we’d talk

through the afternoon

over coffee

“That’s a nice one

you got there”,

he’d say.

−By Charlie Otting