Unity
You told me a story about a What or a Who, saying you’d prefer to say neither; you’d prefer not to choose, though I wondered if the nothing in your last line is the empty set, a simple dearth, or the name of a time—maybe that infinite moment just before the Big Bang, Being Born, Dying, Falling in Love.
It is at this point, darling, or at any other, when I turn to William Wheelbarrow Williams to say, “So. Is your idea animal, vegetable, or mineral? Do you think it could be a Who, by which I mean, Is the Grinch’s idea of a Who down in Whoville still an idea?”
And the famous poet was gone. I wonder if the thought of the Who, possible or imp—together with the dew-drops glistening on the petals of your moonflower vines, are enough to thing-turn the room the window opens into upstairs, her window opens and candlelight. Maybe you find a magical twist of vine in your hands—the fairy-tale rail for the spiraling stairway of leaves leafing to her room and isn’t it just as likely you’re standing drenched beneath her window, and the water running through your fingers
is her unpinned hair, an invitation
to cross from one side over to the middle
then to the other side and again and climb,
and the moonflowers you brought
are to tuck into her long braid,
or, as if she were your queen, to weave
into a crown for her, but any way
you choose, you might still sing to her
your song about who
casting you both in a play, becoming
at last after unbecoming
from nothing and no-one
at no time at all.
—Jennifer Woodworth
Many thanks to Bending Genres Magazine where this piece was first published.
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Thank you Carl!!! Always love your comments, too :)
Gosh, I've missed your posts. Keep them coming!
William Wheelbarrow Williams is the moment of this one that knocked me over and locked me in. Now I'm hungry for frozen plums!