‘What in the World most fair appears,
Yea even Laughter, turns to Tears:
And all the Jewels which we prize,
Melt in these Pendants of the Eyes’
— Andrew Marvell

 

As one season passed the next
in a grassy tangle on a mound of stone,
each day with the snap of vapor
when the colors of sunset
would meld into a liquid grin,
the lonely hag in a shingled house
shunning and shunned by all the world
would stretch her weathered ligaments,
unlatch the window cracked in disrepair
shake out her threadbare rug
and beat its haunches with a piteous fury,
picking apart the tattered threads of life,
beating till its spirit ran dry
like a dead and lifeless carcass
charging claps of thunder
through the shell-shocked glen;
And then the dust would fall like early snow
on the frozen gaze of startled squirrels
while down below a broken starling
would mirror in its glistening eyes,
those eyes uncanny, large and round,
a kindred soul and wingless castaway
and weep in patient wonder
trilling hymns of silent praise
for its kind angelic host,
for her jewels of Providence.
For its daily crusts of bread.

Author of the debut novel Twelfth House and Shaded Pergola, a collection of short poetry with original illustrations, E.C. Traganas has published in over a hundred literary magazines. She enjoys a professional career as a Juilliard-trained concert pianist & composer, has held over 40 nationally-curated exhibitions of her artwork and is the founder/director of Woodside Writers, a NYC-based literary forum. http://www.elenitraganas.com