Two Poems by Sally Bellerose

Title:
Two Poems by Sally Bellerose

Description:
For Issue 43 of Shape of a Box, we present 2 poems by Sally Bellerose. Bio: Sally's work has received many awards including an NEA Fellowship. Her recently published work has appeared in Rock and Sling, The Journal of Humanistic Anthropology, Passager, Cutthroat, Crab Orchard Review, Cup of Comfort for Writers, Memoirs (and), Per Contra, and Saint Anns Review. Copyright 2009 Music used from royalty free music at http://incompetech.com/. 1st Danse Macabre Violin Hook and 2nd Wounded Text of the pieces follows: Dancing She is three feet tall and she is dancing. She is singing, Jingle bells. I have a little dreidel, and she is dancing. Her twin brother Mikey has been dying. He is four days dead. She is three years old and she is dancing. She weighs thirty pounds and she is spinning. She is twirling on the dance floor in the Garden House rented for Mikeys after-funeral meal. Friends and family are sitting at round tables watching or not watching as she is slowing. She is stopping. She is bowing to her auntie, asking for this dance. She is rising in her aunties arms, circling skinny legs around her aunties waist. They are waltzing on parquet. She is laughing, Faster, Auntie, faster, calling, Mikey, Mikey, Mikey, singing, Jingle all the way. She is saying, Put me down, wheeling round the dance floor, looking back and laughing, Chase me, Auntie, chase me. Friends and family are eating ham and tuna, exhausting conversation, He is going to a better place, resting with the Lord. She is hopping. She is stomping, kicking off a shoe. She is sitting on the floor, talking to patent leather, naming her right shoe Mikey, saying, Mikey, as she slips him on, You cant talk to me any more. She is up and she is dancing. Pepere Pepere is too big for the box. He doesnt smell like Pepere. He smells like pine and powder. His skin is pulled too tight, too white on his face. A starched shirt stretches across his belly. I stare at him, lying in his box in the living room. When they left him alone on the feather bed he looked like Pepere. Memere comes to stand behind me. Before I can ask where Pepere will go in his small box, she puts her hand on my shoulder and says, Come away then, Poche Molle. Thats what Pepere calls me, Poche Molle, because I have fat cheeks, like him. She says, Come away then, Poche Molle, but stands still as a tree with her hand on my shoulder, staring at Pepere. The rest of the grown-ups and kids are at the other house, my house next door, getting dressed in their best clothes. Thats what you do when someone dies. But Memere is still in her house dress and I am still in my play clothes. Soft, like a secret, Memere says, They should have let him be. The back door creaks. Memere takes her hand off my shoulder. Come away then, Poche Molle. I dont want to leave him, but I have to get dressed in my best clothes. (Pepere will also appear in Naugutuck River Review. http://naugatuckriverreview.wordpress.com/) Links to creative commons photos: 1st poem - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snoqualmie_Moondance_1993_-_08.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dalecarlia,_a_funeral,_Harper%27s_1883.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knoxville_Botanical_Garden_-_house.JPG http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curtsy_(PSF).png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1817-walz-La-Belle-Assemblee.gif http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_janes.png 2nd poem- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trumna07091115.JPG http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_getting_dressed.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElderlyWomanInGlasses2.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008_Taipei_In_Style_Outdoor_Fashion_Show_Clothes_Racks.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grandma%27s_Favorite.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dutch_door_open.jpg

Author:
shapeofabox

Tags:
publishing, writing, poetry, poems, shapeofabox, folded word press,