Sliced open by light
I plunge into my darkest fears
My feet always cold are clammy
I wonder if the surgeon can smell them
I say I am a poet and will talk
If I cannot write
I tell him Michael is here
My field of vision has become
A spirit-blue fractal plane
The archangel—and what do I know of them
Has brought bougainvillea
Fuchsia and tangerine
Someone turns the kaleidoscope
I wait for the tinkling cataract of sand
That resonated inside my childhood toy
But I hear only a metallic music
A faux Chet Baker
I wish the doctor had told me
He was a jazz fan
Like my obstetrician
Who bossa-nova’d my daughter Julia into the world
With Stan and Astrud
And I remind myself to ask my Dad
If it was like this for him
After they cut him down for dead
From the swinging vine above the mill pond
When he was nine
And no part of living or dying
Ever frightened him again
is a poet and voice-over reader who daylights as a Montessori teacher in Sint Maarten. Her poems and short stories appear online and in print in North America, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. She is the author of the poetry collections Full Moon Fire: Spoken Songs of Love and Moonchild: Poems for Moon Lovers.
