A Living Hagiography for Patti Smith, by Christa Pagliei

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A Living Hagiography for Patti Smith
 
& I recall the first refrain
your voice shook through me
some old boyfriend insisted 
that this wouldn’t be the first time I’d heard you 
but it was, 
the diamond needle sinking into the grooves 
a sharp jewel into my spine
Gloria indeed

I think that if I have lived well
& sculpted myself into a beckoning vessel for muses
it is because you & others like you
have turned the wheel on which I laid my clay
& If I have lived well
& kept safe at my center the soul of a seeker,
skinny fingers probing, jaw always tight with wondering
one morning I will awake
transmuted into a poem of flesh, blood, & bone

When you grateful in grey 
eat black truffles with eyes closed
& breathe deep a widow’s breath
in one inhalation you’ve told me
that memories of pleasure do not stop new pleasures
that memories of pain do not safeguard from new pains
that open, open, open we must remain
the angelic refrain, a chant as old as the first dizzy shepherd
to gaze up in fear, love, & wonder
never a wound / always a doorway
How swiftly you became a shamanic mother superior

in Detroit, city of angles & angels & stone into dust
I would wash your hair with tears.
a rhythmic variation on the theme Mary Magdalene
will I follow you slouching towards Bethlehem somehow Patti?
you have become both St Jerome & St Paula

& when that straight & gridded system comes angrily to the door
to ask “Is there really room? 
Is there space? Here at the inn at the end of the world
for another feverdreaming Jersey Girl?”
Patti you taught me to be undeafened by miracles
for we were both born swaddled & in hay
preferring the tender company of beasts

Christa Pagliei

Christa Pagliei is a writer and media producer in Brooklyn, New York. Her fiction and poetry has been published in places like Fictionvale, Frostwriting, Strangelet, Instagatorzine, and Pseudopod. Christa is also the co-creator (with Michael Augustine Dondero) of the audio drama Lost Signal Society. The show is a series of anthology and stand-alone horror/fantasy/sci-fi plays with a second season slated for Fall 2019. As a member of the Film/TV coordinator’s union IATSE local 161 she’s worked on Succession, Sneaky Pete, White Collar, Mr.Robot, Maniac, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and many more. A book of magical realist short stories about carnivals and professional wrestling is also in the works. Christa enjoys NJ Devils hockey, hiking, botany, 35mm photography, collecting rotational media, and cooking.