ALICE N. PERSONS
———————————
Feng Shui
Cleaning out the pantry,
I come across an old straw box
filled with a motley assortment
of tea bags
going back years,
and stand there musing
over their histories,
their provenance.
this Ceylon tea from a former friend
who faded away when I got a divorce;
this jasmine tea a souvenir from an ex
lover's trip to Japan--the one
where I called his hotel at 3 AM
and a woman answered;
this herbal raspberry tea from a
sensible vegetarian friend,
during my regrettable
phase of swearing off
caffeine and sugar.
These tiny scented envelopes
recall my younger selves,
and those formerly vivid people
once close enough to drink tea with,
to give and take small gifts.
All the ghostly tea-givers
are lost to me--gone
to other countries,
other friends,
unknown lovers,
gone to seed,
gone to California,
gone to God.
[321]
Telephoning John
2 AM from a freezing Boston phone booth--
you never minded me waking you up.
Oregon: a general store in the woods, hot July,
the idle old men speculating about my anatomy
under my fishing clothes. When I left
I was smiling. You missed me.
Lying alone on the floor of my dark living room--
cold Wisconsin rain against the windows,
too sleepy to hang up.
Drunk in a bar in Cody, Wyoming, yelling
over the jukebox--
"Honey, there's a fight--think I'd better go."
On a wharf in Seattle: Puget Sound glittered
while I waited for the coins to drop. Afterwards
I walked by the water and planned a trip to see you.
Traveling light, I don't need a picture
And I know your number by heart.
[322]
Alice Persons has a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of
Oregon. She moved to Maine in 1983 and got a J.D. from the University of
Maine School of Law in 1986. She has had many jobs, including English teacher,
legal secretary, copy editor, and singing waitress. Persons currently works
for a legal publisher and teaches part-time. She lives in Westbrook, Maine
with her husband, dogs and cats. Her poetry has appeared in Animus,
Aurorean, Red Owl, Off the Coast and other journals.
In 2002 she co-edited, with Lillian Kennedy, A Sense of Place, an
anthology of Maine poetry. Her first chapbook, Be Careful What You Wish
For, was published by Moon Pie Press in 2003.
The poems appearing here appear in Persons's first chapbook, Be Careful
What You Wish For (Moon Pie Press, 2003). "Telephoning John" first
appeared in an online magazine, Poetry Repairs. |
