Carolyn Martin
Shall I?
Shall I compare you to a summer's day?
I better not. You'd boil at the trope.
Maybe early spring when squirrels and stellar jays
strut around our yard and ferals tightrope
along the backyard fence? You could burst free
from thaw like crocuses and daffodils
or like the white star-burst magnolia tree
that blooms before cherry and plum. You'd thrill
at arriving first. (I know firsthand,
my dear, that second place does not appeal.)
Of course, if garden images don't stand
a chance of pleasing you, I will repeal
my strategy: you could be the first glow
light years away; you, the first star's echo.
For Bob, an Express Parking Lot Bus Driver
on the Early Morning Shift at Portland International
Something endeared. His breathy hello
as the sun pondered a rise. Corny jokes
when we're half-awake and stressed. (Forecasts claim
snow threatens O'Hare. Expected delays.)
Did you hear the one about…? What happens when…?
Diversions earn our groans. He pockets them
like lost coins or scraps of notes left behind.
Every stop: If you boarded here, please write
the station (number) in the (color) zone.
Parental: no lost cars when we come home.
After a week of lonely hotel rooms,
non-stop meetings with mediocre food—
we're back. It's night. No Bob. But station three,
blue zone is scribbled on a sales receipt.
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| Megan Marlatt:Looking like large puppet heads, it was "anima", the root of "animation", that led me to the making of the big heads, (or "capgrossos" as they are called in Catalonia where I learned the craft.) Anima is the soul or what breathes life into a being and to animate an inanimate object, an artist must insert a little soul into it. However to bring attention to what is invisible, (the soul), I chose to mold its opposite in solid form: the persona, the ego, the big head, the mask. Nearly every culture across the globe has masks. They allow performers to climb into the skin of another being and witness the other's world from behind their eyes. While doing so, the mask erases all clues of the performer's age, gender, species or race. In this regard, I find them to be the most transformative and empathic of all human artifacts.
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