The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Desert Passage~ By Jane Beal

10/28/2014

0 Comments

 
I.

A wooden chair nailed to a tall, headless, branchless tree trunk:
“a vintage piece of Santa Fe whimsy,” my friend says.

Real life looking surreal, suspended above red desert dust
swirling at the cross-roads like two Cochiti women and a boy.

At night, a coyote flees across the street, alone,
briefly illuminated by the headlights of a stranger’s car.


II.

Is my angel sitting in that high chair like a three-year-old,
struck dumb by the memory of my father getting out of the bath?

Is my angel running after the coyote in the dark
while I wrestle with a demon in the air above my bed?

Is my angel tired after thirty-three years of trying to protect
the impossible child, soul screaming, mouth streaming bitter-white?



III.

The monsoon comes. Lightning without thunder,
rain without remorse. Sunflowers bloom in the desert.

The double rainbow appears: a piece of heaven’s ephemera,
the original translucent found-art object in the sky. 

Brewer’s blackbird sings me awake. A hummingbird darts close,
then away. Mariposa wings open, yellow and black, eyes on her back.


IV.

Is my angel in the rain? Does Michael steal the thunder?
Does Gabriel paint the sky?

Will Raphael uproot the sunflowers? Wave them over my head
like a wand and turn me into a blue jay?

I see one now. He sits on a twig, shits white, flies toward me,
and vanishes. Everything disappears into eternity.


V.

Beside a cholla cactus, I sit sheltered by a Cochiti-red blanket,
scraping dry pottery shards against the wounded ground.

I spit in the sand, mix a gritty glue, paste one shard
against another until a broken-faced doll holds all the babies

my angel remembers in pain. I paint her clay storyteller-skin
blue as the turquoise sky, pure as clouds over the badlands.

 
Author Bio:
Jane Beal, PhD is a poet and professional writer. She is the creator of more than a dozen poetry collections, including Sanctuary (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and The Roots of Apples (Lulu Press, 2012), as well as three recording projects: Songs from the Secret Life, Love-Song, and with her brother, saxophonist and composer Andrew Beal, The Jazz Bird. She also writes fiction, creative non-fiction, and works of literary scholarship. To learn more, please visit http://sanctuarypoet.net.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org