Mureall Hebert
In Spring
I’ll build you a garden with rocks,
the burly ones from limestone quarries,
that track the vernal equinox.
It’ll be a meditation garden for worries,
insecurities, inadequacies, and fears,
the burly ones from limestone quarries.
Birds will weep as they fly over, their tears
washing you clean. Leaving no room for those
insecurities, inadequacies, and fears,
You’ll commune with the Milky Way and, I suppose,
rain might fall, a second skin,
washing you clean. Leaving no room for those.
I’ll construct a fountain for wishes
and stack coins at its base.
Rain might fall, a second skin.
Before I leave for the day
I’ll build you a garden with rocks,
and stack coins at its base
that track the vernal equinox.
A Life in Drupelets
She wore a blackberry-stained childhood
with thorns that tattooed her back.
Her hair was a clutter of leaves and wood
and phantoms she couldn’t unpack.
With thorns that tattooed her back,
her dress split and frayed at the seams,
and phantoms she couldn’t unpack
howled each night through her dreams.
Her dress split and frayed at the seams,
and memories of fighting and fists and beers
howled each night through her dreams
forming clumps on her spine in spears.
And memories of fighting and fists and beers
tangled in disarray
forming clumps on her spine in spears
that spooned her vertebrae.
Tangled in disarray,
her hair was a clutter of leaves and wood
that spooned her vertebrae.
She wore a blackberry-stained childhood.
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This issue of Mezzo Cammin is also dedicated to its Founder and Managing Editor for 15 years, Dr. Kim Bridgford (1959-2020). [Photo: Marion Ettinger].
The 2021 Poetry by the Sea conference was canceled due to COVID-19. The next conference is planned for May 24-27 2022.
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| Nicole Michaud: Throughout history, both women and fruit have been popular and enduring subjects for paintings. Women are referred to as the earth in which man plants a formed seed, distancing women from their capacity as creator. Rather, women engaging in procreation utilize the male 'pollen' to create and grow the embryonic seed of future generations.
From the Nariphon of Buddhist mythology (literal fruits shaped as women's bodies and absent bones) growing from the Makkaliphon tree, to the pomegranate of Greek mythology and the apple (or fig) of Judeo-Christian writings, women and fruit have been inextricably linked for millennia. Fruit is the basis of the temptation and fall from grace of Adam and Eve in the Bible, and serves as a treacherous precursor to conflict in mythologies such as the Greek golden apple's role in beginning the Trojan War. Women's bodies and body parts are often compared to apples, pears, melons, lemons, and other fruit. This association and dehumanization of women has facilitated an enduring mistreatment, ownership, and underestimation of capacity.
Inside, transformations are happening.
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