| The Honey Land Review Fall 2009 Volume 2, Issue 1 |
In the crowded trolley, I feel someone
touching me, a man
gesturing to the seat he’s vacated,
asking, “Would you like to sit down?”
His voice is hesitant
and even though I’m stiff from three hours
folded into a balcony seat at the ballet
I’d rather stand
and take pleasure in the swaying of the car
and the vision of myself performing an arabesque,
my right leg elevated, toe pointed back
while my left leg steadies and supports
the line of my body parallel to the floor.
For my back is limber, had better be
after all my salutes to the sun.
And here’s this man. The look in his eyes,
like I’m his beloved granny. Is he twenty, twenty-five?
He sees not Darci Kistler,
but a woman of a certain age.
I’d like to slug him, blacken his clueless eyes.
Still, there’s his gallantry
here in Boston on the Green Line
early in the 21st century.
So I thank him and sit down.
touching me, a man
gesturing to the seat he’s vacated,
asking, “Would you like to sit down?”
His voice is hesitant
and even though I’m stiff from three hours
folded into a balcony seat at the ballet
I’d rather stand
and take pleasure in the swaying of the car
and the vision of myself performing an arabesque,
my right leg elevated, toe pointed back
while my left leg steadies and supports
the line of my body parallel to the floor.
For my back is limber, had better be
after all my salutes to the sun.
And here’s this man. The look in his eyes,
like I’m his beloved granny. Is he twenty, twenty-five?
He sees not Darci Kistler,
but a woman of a certain age.
I’d like to slug him, blacken his clueless eyes.
Still, there’s his gallantry
here in Boston on the Green Line
early in the 21st century.
So I thank him and sit down.
| After Giselle Claire Keyes |
Photo by Timothy Gerken
Claire Keyes is the author of The Question of Rapture, a book of poems published in 2008 by Mayapple Press in
Michigan. Professor Emerita at Salem State College, where she taught English for thirty years, she has also written
The Aesthetics of Power: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich, newly published in paperback in 2009 by the University of
Georgia Press. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Calyx, The Valparaiso Review, and The Women's Review
of Books, among others. She is a resident of Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Michigan. Professor Emerita at Salem State College, where she taught English for thirty years, she has also written
The Aesthetics of Power: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich, newly published in paperback in 2009 by the University of
Georgia Press. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Calyx, The Valparaiso Review, and The Women's Review
of Books, among others. She is a resident of Marblehead, Massachusetts.
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