When Leaves Fall

—Anonymous Photo
 

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
—Jane Blue

It is October, dogwood and roses outside my window,
my feet on my ottoman
empire.  The leaves of the dogwood soak up sun
like a pool of drying blood, darker
than the single-petaled rose it stands behind: colors
of a Turkish rug or a Byzantine tapestry.
What do I know of life?  The leaves will soon fall
and rot into the earth.  In the spring, dogwood
covers itself with waxy white, like the chaste
St. Clare in her coffin.  Clare is here on the ottoman
in a poem by Jorie Graham—
“At the Exhumed Body of Santa Ciara, Assisi”—
preserved in her young starved body.
She was like the leaves of a tree, waiting for rain.
The tree does not go out and get rain for itself.
When leaves fall and die the tree endures
in its limbs and roots.  So what
is death, anyway?  A novel by the Swedish writer
Jens Christian Grøndahl is here too: Silence in October
that deconstructs a marriage.  What if?
What if they hadn’t made their continual
treaty of Sèvres, compromising and diminishing
their personal realms.  What if we hadn’t?


We look at old photographs.  “Is that you?”


Everyone is going to breakfast at Crepeville today.
“Is that a city?” you ask.  No, it’s a restaurant.
We’re not going to Crepeville this Sunday.  I roam
my ottoman empire.  I always come back to you.  Soon
I will get up and we will walk through the streets together.

        

           —from Turf Daisies and Dandelions, Rattlechaps 

             Chapbook Series #29, Rattlesnake Press, 2006
 
______________________

—Medusa, celebrating the life of a fine poet ~

And a reminder that the International Peace Festival in Carmichael takes place today from 11am-5pm at the La Sierra Community Center on Engle Road, and that from 3-6pm, Sac. Poetry Center’s special event, A Tribute to James Cooper, will take place at 25th & R Sts. in Sacramento. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.

Jane and a little prince.
To learn about services for Jane and
about her daughter’s Facebook group, 
“Remembering Jane Blue”, go to 
www.facebook.com/jane.blue.7/.










 






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