Prophet

Awkward introductions and casual fumbling

Relieve the tension and excuse the shaking girl

Who sat where you belong,

Lovingly weaving the basket I can put my feelings in later.

But I can’t see your simple spring cotton, ordinary beauty, sensible shoes…

Only your North City lights,

“Little lavender colored mints,

Teacups hung on hooks,

And pirate’s flying saucer”-

Because the multicolored jewels that spill from your lips

Make me “feel like I have tears in my eyes”.

So I close them, acquiesce,

To concentrate on your careful telling,

Of  “scribbled notes in dove-blood ink on yellowed vellum”,

Delivered by the harried prophet from outside the cafe,

To you, then me-

Secret whispered from the edge of my memory,

Told softly as Grandmother’s hands, neatly folding linen napkins,

And a with kid’s smile, behind intelligent eyeglasses

Now I know what he said, but won’t repeat,

In a language I can’t speak,

But now understand.

CM Shaw 2011

I took a few lines from St. Louis poet Stefene Russell for this, hence the quotation marks. I did this because the poem is about going to watch her read poetry recently- having a hard time describing the experience, I just started pulling line of hers to use. Listening to Stefene read poetry is akin to opening a box of keepsakes from someones life- her careful enunciation and clear, but soft voice I find very pleasing even when I'm unsure what she's talking about, what the objects in the keepsake box mean all the time. I read this recently at Duff's for the April Chance Operations reading, and was surprised to get a cheer from the back of the room when I tried to explain this! In the few times we've spoken, Stefene has always been really nice to me, too- her and her husband Thom came to my art show at Concrete Ocean last year on a night of a lot of other bigger, more important openings in the area. I was really honored by that. Sorry about the weird sketch of Stefene- I (laughs) can't really explain that :D