POEM FOR HELENE

 

POEM FOR HAR -  Helene Ann Ryesky, born in 1929

In another lifetime, Helene, we donned our favorite clothes

and interviewed artists, both up and coming, and already there

for ART MATTERS. All my stories are gathered in a black trashbag

on the high shelf of my hall closet. You, my dear, darling, Queen Helene,

have left your home for good - oh, those Davey Ire Pancakes, you would

make me and Aaron - he did jigsaw puzzles in the dining room near your

purple African Violets - and the coffee was simply the best I'd ever had

because YOU, dear darling Queen Helene made it for me. Mornings, I eat

hot oatmeal with blueberries in those delicate White and Copenhagen blue

plates, later to eat dessert in Shades of Green saucers, where you once

served compote - Dear God, that concoction of prunes, pears, apples while

your daughter Carol was dying, and big-limbed Matt, too, who married and arrived

with his big slobbering dog, as we wonder

Is there a God, and are certain we don't know.

 

Thankfully I visited you once at Manatawny, brought by Mr Uber

Never thinking I would not see your face again - the face that launched

Dozens of photographs, yes, I fell hard for Chris Ray who loved and left me

Just as you, too, sweet Queen Helene, are leaving me, too, in pieces

like your peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white with crusts you'd trim

Can houses await in the Afterlife? The grey cupboards you painted

in the kitchen - save me a place, s'ils te plait.

....

SPOKE TO FARIQ from Vanguard this morning. "At Vanguard my voice is my password."

Asked him, what exactly does Vanguard do? Investment manager, asset manager, brokerage firm.

Fer-shtay? Pas vraiment but I withdrew a shitload of money so I can self-publish my novel, which Nikole Bokat, author and editor, helped me with.

The poem for Helene, I ran over to Scott's to mail in his covered mailbox.

Hear that sound? It's the furnace gliding on. A rather pleasant sound. 

Am gonna submit some poetry to a new place.

Now?

Why not?

Right now.