Portrait
She has a fear of houseplants,
thinks them dirty,
cannot see beyond the depths
of roots and rhizomes,
smokes cigarettes
and drinks domestic gin
from a cracked, coffee-stained mug.
She brushes her teeth
with table salt and tap water
and bathes in a faucetless tub,
watches worlds go by from behind
the veil of a small stained glass window.
Accompanied by raindrops,
rustling leaves
and the distant laughter
of children, she sings
to songbirds,
making up words
as she goes along.
I fondle this object,
search for a scent,
imagine it held the things
she took away with her at night.
A music box?
A trinket box?
A puzzle box to me.
There is no smell,
an empty well of glass,
bones of polished brass
wrapped in a tortoise shell skin.
Its veins run dry;
blood well spent on words.
Words that crossed oceans
on onion skin,
to Deutschland,
her land,
to
and Weisbaden,
to eyes of kin
whom I have yet to meet.
~ Yolanda Coulaz is a poet and photographer, owner/editor of Purple Sage Press, and (to pay the bills) she owns and operates a security systems company with her husband, Roy. Her poetry has won a number of awards and has been widely published. In April 2004 she coordinated, hosted and was a feature reader at “Poets for Pets”, a fundraiser for Loving Touch Animal Rescue and has published the anthology For Loving Precious Beast to help benefit their cause. Her first book of poetry Spirits and Oxygen was released in October 2003. Her second book, Reckoning, is forthcoming.