​If I Were Free of Gravity, collaboration with Betsy Mars and Dorothy Embacher

Metamorphosis, by Dorothy Embacher (Canada) contemporary

​If I Were Free of Gravity

If I were a rich man, I’d play the fiddle on the roof
like a floating violinist in a painting by Chagall.
I’d elevate myself
above everybody else.
I’d tune out the world, ignoring change,
and live in my cocoon until ready to emerge, 
weaving silk from my salivary glands.
 
Eating the finest mulberry leaves,
I’d live in a cloistered world,
important and cultivated -
white naked vulnerable, tiny horns on my back. 
 
Flightless, I depend on humans for my brief survival.
Inside my cocoon, I thread my prism’s bars.
Mission accomplished, 
I’ll be dipped in boiling water
to make my silken treasure easier to unravel.
The world outside revels in my sputum,
dyeing for its glorious sheen and strength. 
 
Feeling the fire rising, 
I break my bonds and escape
through a hole of my own making,
turn a new leaf and fly off gently
to the waking moon.
There, alight and in tune,
I’d land in lunar dust 
with delicate feet and
plant my silken flag.

Betsy Mars

This poem was first published at Silver Birch.

This collaboration was the result of the global Telephone art project.

Betsy Mars practices poetry, photography, pet maintenance, and publishes an occasional anthology through Kingly Street Press which she founded in 2019. Her poetry has recently appeared in One Art, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Autumn Sky, as well as numerous anthologies and journals. She is a Best of the Net nominee and her photos have been featured in various journals including RATTLE and Spank the Carp. Betsy is the author of Alinea (Picture Show Press) and co-author of In the Muddle of the Night with Alan Walowitz (Arroyo Seco Press). 

Dorothy Embacher is a visual artist from Meaford, Ontario. Her creations are influenced by the waters of Georgian Bay and the woodlands of the Niagara Escarpment. Dorothy works in a variety of media, including painting, printmaking and collage. Her process is intuitive, shaped by poetry, personal experience, and collaboration, inspiring art from poetry, poetry from art, with a deeply environmental perspective. She has exhibited at Meaford Arts and Cultural Hall, Owen Sound Banner Project, and the 2020 International Telephone Game. Her latest work will be featured in the 608 Exhibition, to bring attention to 608 trees that may be destroyed by developers.