Between Heaven and Ohio

02.08.01
11.23.03

Silver slippers and a cake iced in pearls and tiny bells. Necklace made of teardrop shaped garnets set in pewter briars. A yellow yartzheit candle for my father. A cake platter and silver server. I do not know the speaker of your poem. Can anyone write a poem about God? Kidskin gloves. Silk stockings edged in lace. Petticoats of rustling cloudy layers. Someone else to do all the laundry. Hats for every occasion. “Omit the anthropomorzing of God.” I am unforgivably lazy about reading poems. “I ended a poem recently with gratitude…it’s a hard thing to work with.”
A tiara made of swallow spit. A pashmina. A room filled with silk and velvet cushions. Long cigarettes. Sugared orange leaves.
“I wanted more with the moths…later seemed lazy.” “I’m not sure what guards, but I’m not sure who San Juan Nepomucono is either.”
“Why can’t the guards just throw him off…in the writing of the poem.”
One of my many chores was to clean the houseplants, I scrubbed the toilets also, and the sinks. Polished mirrors and set the table…I’m not sure, in retrospect, what exactly Sarah did.