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Woman Writing on a Window~ By Andrea Dejean

2/28/2019

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She was writing on her kitchen window 
with strong, sweeping strokes inscribed 
in the steamy fug 
of something savory simmering 
on the stove for supper. 
Invisible words in a visible world 
of high-rise towers.
Her scarf hooding eyes 
scanning the horizon 
for a danger that would come 
from outside 
that stuffy kitchen. 
Writing, writing – writing what?
A heart-felt plea,
a cri de coeur ? 
helpmehelpmehelpmehelpmehelpme 
cursive colère...
I’ve had enoughenoughenoughenoughenough!
Or maybe she was urging
a child to recite his lessons, 
lessening the confusion of living 
between two worlds, two cultures.
Or maybe she was writing… 
poetry, proving Fermat’s theorem, putting
the finishing touches 
on the closing arguments of a case...
In any case, 
she erased the inscription 
with a swipe of the diaphanous 
sleeve of her dress, her forearm arcing 
across the window, wiping 
away the evidence 
before the danger 
came home, came in
from the cold to scold her.


Author Bio:
Andrea Dejean writes poetry to try to understand why cymbals clang in her ears when she witnesses certain scenes of everyday life. Sometimes the writing brings understanding; sometimes it doesn’t. Although that has always been her reaction to such scenes, the clanging cymbals have had a cross-cultural note for much of the past three decades as, after having left the United States for the first time just after graduating from college, she has lived in the former Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Cameroon and the French overseas department of French Guiana. A native of Detroit, she is permanently based in southwestern France. She is the translator of a book on biodiversity and has published her own poetry and creative fiction and non-fiction in both independent and university-affiliated literary journals.
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