Library before dawn

  

It is still, all asleep,

Cabernet relaxes against the glass.

The books facing me

remind me of the girls,

dresses all different colors,

lined up across the hall at

CYO dances, facing the boys,

standing straight, short and tall,

giving a certain flavor

and aroma to the room,

while waiting to be chosen.

Full of words, but too shy

to speak aggressively -

always the whispering though

as now the shelves

begin to faintly vibrate.

Dorothy Parker quietly denigrating

Pound about his politics,

Pastan to Dickinson about the

economy of her pain and

Plath very low to Sexton

on the craft of death.

I vaguely make out Eliot

criticizing my choice of wine

when Whitman hushes them all

and wants to get back to the

slow-dancing of teenage boys,

first gropes to ‘Wonderland by Night’ -

comparing it to my handling

of their volumes and my occasionally

taking them individually to the car

apparently for closer inspection.

Walgreens

           

Joan asked if she could

help me –        

a friendly enough clerk

at Walgreen’s,

with a ‘ JOAN ’ name tag -

and I’m trying on sunglasses.

Try these with the pink lenses,

she hands me a pair

I would not have chosen

and as I lift them to my nose

to model them in the mirror

she explains that,

You’ll be able to see God

and the pink glow will warm

your understanding.

Morning epiphany.

The afternoon spent

in a pink haze of holiness,

contemplating all those stories

of Zen masters and their

eccentric methods,

time journeys by association,

scribbling poems about everything,

formulating new life priorities,

and wondering about a shrine

and candles for St. Joan.