magical realism
Medusa’s Mariachi Band – Live from Hazleton, Pennsylvania
A Poem of Immigration
by Maria Jacketti
Invocation
Come, Clio, history’s doyenne,
nun of Alexandria, tabloid-scroll of truth.
On this mountain of cracked coal,
far from golden ages,
we move closer to the end of the long count,
the new Earth,
all of [...]
comedy incarnate — Part 5
Joan Forgiving
1.
I am agony.
I am fire.
The flames sear
my fleeing flesh.
I am incarnate.
I am pain.
The fires scorch
my thoughts,
then sever them
from my mind.
I am forever . . .
yet I must die;
I want to cease.
I must drive
myself away,
to rid [...]
Gingerbread Lady
Gingerbread lady,
no sugar or cinnamon spice;
years ago arthritis and senility took their toll.
Crippled mind moves in then out, like an old sexual adventure
blurred in an imagination of fingertip thoughts.
Who in hell remembers the characters?
There was George, her lover, near the bridge at the Chicago River:
she missed his funeral; her friends were there.
She always made feather-light [...]
Fire
Tonight the boy who tends the pool
comes to lock up just as I step
from the shower, naked and wet.
Between us, a fogged glass door.
I know his as the hand
that turns the key, but he
does not know this body as mine —
my shape, ambiguous; skin, unlined.
In this hazy light, I could be
the kind of nymph he’d [...]
Hevelius
Sits with a long, thin tube
on an open roof. A wooden balcony
keeps him from falling off the roof.
Good work Hevelius,
you bear of a man, you lecher.
The long tube
supported by ropes and pulleys
aims at the moon. Mountains! Seas! Comet hair!
Hevelius stops observing and sketches the stars
as seen from the outside, looking in–
the constellated [...]
Occultations
What of the secret,
esoteric meanings
behind my commonplace,
lingering doubts.
What if I wanted
to hide like a child,
in petals that pink or blue
like litmus papers.
To become hidden from view–
[...]
The Astronomer
There was the scent of clay
on his shoes,
the newspaper rolled up
to kill bees, mercury drops
he played with in the thirties.
Once he told us
of a star named Capella
flickering blue, red, white
like the country he adopted
but never loved.
I don’t know which is worse,
the fact that the moon
is leaving the earth,
or this dirt tracked
into the foyer, left
by his [...]
From Mary to Eve
Hera, they worshipped you.
Built marble temples in your name,
bowed before you, mother-
goddess, birther, life giver.
From you, the mystery of creation
brought into light, emergence of plump
fresh humans from your silky tunnel,
rose on your sweet warm milk.
You watched them as they slept.
Standing guard with your staff,
a bird on each shoulder. Your gown
cascaded, shuddering
in twilight’s zephyr.
Until they [...]
Heaven’s Potter
In earth, I glaze a moon,
Pelted with meteorites,
Crazed with craters,
And bubbling with lava
From a core that lives.
Gold foil on black raku,
Stars in a midnight sky,
Distant hope a stray ray
Will find me on its way
To the Mars or Saturn.
I would swim in the void
Beneath this vault so round;
Tickle manly Orion’s beard
Causing him to laugh a hearty [...]
Shaman’s Journey to 4000 AD
We are high in a tower, where the future still meets in boardrooms, and commoners skitter below in insect-suits. “I’m so cold,” the shaman tells her hostess. There was no sign of quilts, bunny slippers, Earl Grey Tea. So much for these tropics of hospitality.
“I’m not. We are not, cold,” the hostess slings [...]
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