Hi Marilyn,
I'm still enjoying reading yr poem! I find, each time I read it, I'm finding
more of the place (& if the Mozart's not weanted then just...).
But I don't feel satisfied by the ending. It seems a list of things I can't
interpret. Somehow I seem to have left the home and I'm... (where?). I guess
I could be just outside, maybe in the garden, but I could be where the
writer/narrator is... I could, I feel, be anywhere.
I could assume, because of the soot and the sour smoke, there's been a great
fire (which I think there has been in places in the US) but then the word
ark hints at flood more than fire...
Maybe I'm just a clueless reader.
Bob
>From: Marilyn Injeyan <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Solitaire
>Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 13:09:52 EDT
>
> Solitaire
>
>Ashen air from Isabella fires lingers
>at our home in the high desert.
>Beneath patio cover facing the road,
>a shadow crosses your brow.
>Eyes melancholy, you fill half
>the attached nylon chairs, lukewarm
>beer in one slot, cigar pressed between
>thumb and forefinger. The dog
>at your feet sniffs darkness, listens
>to conversation with me on the phone
>and a coyote's soliloquy.
>
>Chicken Marsala and angel hair cool
>on the stove. Limp romaine, tomatoes
>will be tossed to rabbits, chipmunks, jays.
>If I were there, fewer leftovers would
>be packed away in the fridge -
>that gallery of contingencies, prey
>to forgetfulness, deceptive promises,
>remains of good intentions.
>
>Though you were thrilled with the mail
>order ten-boxed set of Mozart weeks ago,
>it is still shrink-wrapped. Upstairs bed
>not slept in since I sojourned,
>anticipates guests or my return.
>Silence permeates the ark.
>
>In sour smoke's pungency,
>you regard night that catapults
>decrees of separation, broken limbs,
>remember red-tailed hawks' revelry,
>blanketed seeds under soot
>and scorched earth that wait.
>
> Marilyn Injeyan
> October 5, 2002
>
>
>
>
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