Week after week
they climbed their six splintered
pentecostal stairs to dance
like wonderful trained
bears, climbing, falling,
singing, their hands that ordinarily
held books or washed babies
or sometimes counted out money
to pay the milkman,
clapping,
clapping joy
as if they held tambourines,
laughing, their eyes lit
with some inner glory like a fire:
Oh holy, holy, they sang
and tossed their heads to a strong
upbeat rhythm. Oh brother, oh sister,
Oh holy, their housekeys jangling
in their pockets, their coins jingling
as the plate was passed.
What would I have dropped
that summer night--absolved--into their plate
as they danced, howling their songs
holy, and more holy, like a circus troupe,
but my ignorance, an offering of
my two dazed eyes,
my pious, stunned tongue,
my baseball,
my cap pistol and a red roll of caps,
a white Life Saver, and
four glass black marbles still warm
from my hand?
Outside
under the glass-black sky and looking in
at their window, it was awesome,
and I wished I knew the words.
3 comments:
This was an absolutely powerful stanza:
What would I have dropped
that summer night--absolved--into their plate
as they danced, howling their songs
holy, and more holy, like a circus troupe,
but my ignorance, an offering of
my two dazed eyes,
my pious, stunned tongue,
my baseball,
my cap pistol and a red roll of caps,
a white Life Saver, and
four glass black marbles still warm
from my hand?
Wonderful!
"Outside
under the glass-black sky and looking in
at their window, it was awesome,
and I wished I knew the words. "
Just found your blog by way of bloghopping & these lines of the last stanza, jumped out at me. and the title and ...
What an amaing poem! Your language is as lively as the meeting! I love your details. And everything everyone else said! PS: Thaks for your kind kind words on my blog!
Post a Comment