In a perfect world this would be a space machine and she'd be here herself rather than a closet
we reach into that gap among the rounded hangers and conjure maybe an article of clothing gives a clue.
Part of her is frozen in the image -- that can't be taken of her only what someone misremembers faintly yet as an artifact of beauty but second only to her -- that registers
The rest, the real thing, is flying-off somewhere with the hearts and woe-squeaks of little animals called men.
I like the soft, dark dig in the closet of time you've described. If I had to choose a face, it would be Rampling's.
ReplyDeleteWoe squeaks? Eek!
ReplyDeletei can look after a little animal named Humphrey bogart!
ReplyDeleteOh, to be such a Mrs....
ReplyDeletei'm with Tess...Rampling's ..
ReplyDeleteTess,
ReplyDeleteRampling was not in my mind at all when I percolated this over 3 days. This wording didn't come easily. A rough idea of a 'dark haired, Victorian' substitution for La Gioconda, was.
But when I sought, she popped up, and simply 'fit'.
Tfool
Cad,
ReplyDeleteEek, indeed! We have to watch out, sometimes!
Trulyfool
Kim,
ReplyDeleteThis kind of Mrs came out both wanted and wanting. You sure?
Trulyfool
Aparna,
ReplyDeleteRampling came last, but she's always been both mysterious and that suited what I'd written.
Trulfool
Isabelle,
ReplyDeleteBogart's been one of my idols forever. Manly, with a hidden sensitivity.
You would be beneficial for him, for sure!
Trulyfool
authentic and creative,
ReplyDeletelove it.
Jingle,
ReplyDeleteYou honor me with that word 'authentic'. I do think it is.
TFool
A return, a re-read. The final line is powerfully poetic.
ReplyDeleteInspiring and creative, love it :)
ReplyDeleteThe Dude Abides.
ReplyDeleteT.S.Eliot 'The Journey of the Magi'for you.
(Two journeys related through paradox)
A great poem and poet.He is buried near my cottage in Somerset UK.
I always visit when I return to Old Blighty.
There is a T.S.Eliot reading every year in the church:never enough seats as he is still enormously popular.
TDA
Twords,
ReplyDeleteThe final line shot up from my throat -- thanks for liking it!
Tfool
Marinela,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! (Like your site!)
Trulyfool
Me, Dude,
ReplyDeleteAt your suggestion, re-read 'Magi'.
The birth of a realization, certainly. An upset. A finding things now no longer what they were.
The Kings' journey and Eliot's. The journey to a birth and its promise of death to end death.
His poetry is great. He takes knocks (as does Modernism itself) for a 'hieratic' stance, not democratic enough.
Here in the States, always suspicious of rank, it pays little to 'look down' or hold the commonplace accountable for what it is.
Truly, fool