Woman In A Field I want to paint your sky blue skirt spotted with hundreds of white islands, ocean on land before a primrosed field, grass green, hair a flame, talisman beside my keyboard, gift received. I thank you now, and dream of a world beyond my own eyes, of essences, sky,water, woman, primroses, grass. I say the peace that came dropping slow drops for me as well as I gaze on poppies, butter- cups next to primroses. I can catch them all in a net of wildflowers, and you how shall I name your abandon before field and sky wearing the ocean on your body? How shall I turn away? Will you walk with me reading these lines? House Before the Endless Plain My house is made of dishwasher and microwave-proof glasses and dishware, fine-cut serving bowls, goblets plated in gold, trays to serve sweetmeats, plaques I received for speeches to Rotary and Lions clubs, to the local American school. I have a blue flower- bordered poem about a bird just above me in full song as I look up thinking of Cote d'Ivoire and an angel in flight. I think of you now on the other side of these lines, how you are drinking tea, how you attend to perfumes and powders. I think of you on each of the continents, my collective love, universal and catholic taste. But I am still in the relay race, looking for a partner to whom I can pass the baton. Work has become a cul-de-sac, an alley at the end of the road, but beyond is the yet-to-be discovered field, fresh air, bird song falling. Another Murder Most Foul The kid, eighteen, white, drove for hours and hours, a camera on his head, to mow black people down in the parking lot and inside a Tops market at Buffalo, New York. And once again we wonder if the right to bear arms will be challenged, whether weapons might become a little more difficult to buy at gun stores, in sections for arms at the larger all purpose markets, at shows, on the internet. And we wonder why the cop persuaded the kid to turn himself in, to not kill himself. So justice can be served? So we can imagine his pretty boy face through trial and judgment and in dreams of survivors, the ones whose families were shredded one Saturday afternoon, food shopping?
Image: Baton Pass Flying at 120 mph under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License by Richard Schneider
Indran Amirthanayagam edits poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions (www.beltwayeditions.com). He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly (www.beltwaypoetry.com). He has published 22 poetry books, including Ten Thousand Steps Against The Tyrant (Broadstone Books, 2022) and Blue Window, translated by Jennifer Rathbun (Dialogos Books, 2021)