Veiled, by Julene Waffle

Veiled

after Veiled, by Gwendolyn Knight (USA, b. Barbados) 1937-1961. Click here to view.

The astonishing thing about the spines of your stories 
are that they tie loops about your waist 
and anchor the knots in the scarf that tames your hair.
Your downcast eyes give point to the sadness hooked to your heart.

Your hair might be silver, your skirt may be green,
But the books that live inside you are blue,
and your almond eyes can’t bear to look at them. 

There must be a torrent behind your closed face,
your silent mouth; there must be anger
recording all you want to say and do
but can’t.

I am sure if your shelves broke loose, 
your world would tumble 
and what would be left would be 
sparklers twirled in the black of night
that would burn tangled images 
in eyes who watched.

Julene Waffle

Julene Waffle, a graduate of Hartwick College and Binghamton University, is a teacher in a rural NYS public school, an entrepreneur, a nature lover, a wife, a mother of three boys, two dogs, three cats, and, of course, she is a writer. She finds great pleasure in juggling all these things and managing to seem like she has it all together.. Her work has appeared in The Adroit Journal, NCTE’s English Journal, La Presa, The Non-Conformist, The Ekphrastic Review, and Mslexia, among others. She was also published in the anthologies Civilization in Crisis, American Writers Review 2021, and Seeing Things (2020), and her chapbook So I Will Remember was published in 2020.  Learn more at www.wafflepoetry.com.