The poetic city: “From Subject to Object 6/21/2013”

Many of Helen’s friends at the 2019 French Quarter Fest, thinking of her.

A Suite for Miss Helen: From Subject to Object 6/21/2013

Sitting in the garden

Side by side

Watching the birds

Listening to the clarinet

Dancing to the bass

While Miss Helen sings of Avalon

With lyrical bits snatched from the abyss

By a melody

Buried safely in neurons

Yet to be lost.

And I wonder what …

What I would have thought

If I had known

Twenty years ago

When first we danced

That I would be here

Side by side

With Miss Helen

Wheelchair bound

Mind adrift

Dancing in the ruins

Watching her slow transition

From subject to object.

And I wonder

What I should think

Knowing what I know

Seeing what I see

Myself in a garden

Counting the birds

Wheelchair bound

Dancing in the ruins

Twenty years hence

When my turn comes

To make the transition

From subject to object.

_____

© Reece Burka 2/1/2019