Chosen

Out of Bethlehem
I Call
out of faith
out of fear
she ran
while mothers wept
unconsoled.
Out of Egypt
I Call
out of faith
out of fear
(blind obedience)
she returned.
The wonder is
the women didn't stone her
or look askance
from the corners of their Eyes
comforting their daughters with
one day she'll get hers--
human nature.
Out of the depths
I call
out of faith
out of fear
thirty years later
she would come to understand
the ineffable liberation
of grief.


(Image: Flight Into Egypt, He Qi, 2001)

Sonora Webster Carver, horse diver, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Atlantic City. 1904-2003.


Notes on a Death at Ninety-nine


Sonora walks through
the tackroom,
looking back on a life well-lived,
considering the nature of miracles.
Blind men see
paralytics walk,
Answered prayer--
what purpose when
the masses applaud the ordinary
and the sacred becomes a circus.
Most open their eyes
to greet the new day
but take for granted
the wonder of a sunrise or
a single yellow flower
bending in the breeze.

Sonora Sees with her heart--
Seizes the moment
when the horse runs by.
Grabs onto life
with bare hands
Riding high whole unstoppable,
Sonora looks over her shoulder
and winks at the wind.

Sacrifice

Asleep on her bed of roses
does she dream of better days
or look back on
the unseemliness
of secret assignations--
foes hiding behind curtains?

Her boy,
conflicted--
father issues
give it time.
But Empty Dreams
of Undiscovered Countries
stretch endlessly before.
No respite,
and so
to the flowers…

He could have erected a monument
to sadness and beauty,
or to her childlike trust in the world at large;
he could have honored
her simplicity…

Instead, Eidolon--
construct of sentiment--
Shadow of self.
She wakes and asks,
“Who is Ophelia?”
The pedestal falls.
He leaves her to fate
and holds fast to his dream of the girl
she might have been.


(Image: Ophelia Among the Flowers, Odilon Redon)

AliceOphelia

fell into the mirror
escape is easy---

on paper.

Alice's questions
run off with her head
too big too small
the world's gone mad

and time is all

that matters.

Alice regrets her intrusion SEARCHES

frenetically for an exit FINDS
she's lost the key to the ladies' room

while the rabbit rushes on...

Sweet Ophelia goes gently,
the silken surface of the pond
mistaken for glass,
wades in
and the whisper of watergrass

lulls her softly to sleep.

THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
(for Kevin)

Dear Mr. Barnum:

Please excuse Sisyphus. He is temporarily unable to fulfill his contractual obligations. I fear he is quite unwell.....

Sneering demons who'd look on and laugh,
Simpering imps who'd pat him on the back,
Half-hearted roars--tepid applause
Well-meaning patrons moved only by flaws---
Sisyphus phoned in sick.

Tired of the nothing--tents up tents down,
The sadness of peg-holes left in the ground,
A ton-and-a-half of elephant shit
High expectations--always unmet---
Sisyphus phoned in sick.

Haiku on Bruegel's Eyes

The fisherman on

the pier wouldn't have dreamed of

gazing at the sun

while the ploughman sat

for lunch and longed for golden

days...no one looked up.

Pursuing life, none

saw Icarus fall, none grasped

the true weight of death.

All approached life with

a base mundanity that

belied its meaning.

(Thank you Dennis.)

Nietszche Loses his Mind

Portrait of Sisyphus

in his personal hell;

does he lie back

and die in the fire?

does he sweatstrugglehope

pushthestoneupthehill

Sisyphus opts for

absurdity---

what better answer

to a world without god?

(Image: Frank Williams, Sisyphus)