re-vision

quills scratch…whispering
across parchment sheets…
faint-lined for perfection…
as responsive to the cadence
of the lector’s monotone,
monks copy prescribed words

then… in ages’ increments
rise calibrated voices…strike that…
reword revolt revise review rethink
to speed certain…through fresh cosmologies
a hoped for balance
between when to embrace space
and when to follow lines

Bonnie Marshall

Space Out

There is necessity for flight
to lift into air…like flying fish
against restricted rise.

Échappé and grand Jeté..
ballet dancers jump…soar weightless.
Stage-lit trapeze flyers…trusting,
launch toward catchers…timed,
using the grace of gravity.

Near me…dusk daydreams into night
as caved bats dart from folded sleep
to squeak a thin harmonics
against limits in their space.

Bonnie Marshall

Sculptor: John Safer  “Ascent”

Worlds Traveling

I’ve heard Scots witches chanting,
survived a Bermoothes shipwreck,
smelled the reek of battle gore
at Agincourt.
I’ve…watched players play
The Mousetrap one still cold night
in Denmark…
and I’ve circle danced
while Titania’s elves and faeries
sang lullabies in an Athens grove.

I’ve souvenirs…
a simple balance scale
glass vials
lace handkerchief
and once…from Egypt
a covered basket
brimmed to the top with figs.

Bonnie Marshall

Voicing

Photographer: Shannon Leith

how careless
he left his body
now I must
do something with it
spend money
just to place it
in a fancy box
bury it in dirt
burn it in a fire place

what if I breathe in his ashes…
what if he drifts into my dreams…
what if I didn’t care
yet oh my dear God…I do

Bonnie Marshall

Beloved

beloved…
I do not loan you love
it’s implicit in your taking
no promissory notes
no signatures
for who…what…where…when
most certainly no why
for I have assayed your worth
…to me…
and value it like breathing

Bonnie Marshall