Tall animated woman,
her late twenties.
I see her now
calling from the second-story window
of my high school,
commanding with a smile in her voice
that I leave the athletic field
at once.
In shirt-sleeve weather
I was refining new-found skills
at tossing the discus:
all in the timing and the wrist.
Lean lanky sixteen-year-old Olympian
who should have been
in his fifth period classroom
conjugating verbs.
Elizabeth was her name
and she knew we called her Liz
behind her back.
Not much she didn’t know about us,
and because I was the quiet one
who presumed himself a writer ,
not to be heard except in his writing,
Liz insisted I be the one to play
the male lead for god’s sake
in the senior class production
she would direct, nurse, and shape
the five afternoons a week
that I should be sailing my disk,
emulating Discobolus.
I was to play, said Liz,
a preoccupied eccentric,
a nutty inventor who never stopped talking,
never knew what he was saying,
mouthed so many words and lines
he rarely left the stage.
The very thought of it scared me
speechless,
a grievous affliction
for one anointed the main attraction.
Hacking through packs
of purloined cigarettes I learned
my lines, took my bows, discovered
the exhilaration of applause,
and the pleasure of pleasing Liz,
who taught me the ways and whys of grammar,
taught me to speak, speak up, speak out,
taught me to write for the fun of writing,
taught me to know myself
better.
I meant to tell her
she rearranged my life.
I never did.
I saw Liz later,
a class reunion,
her imposing presence bent
with stroke,
her vacant eyes failing to focus
on me
or the autographed copy
of my first book.
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Oh That Is So Sad....So Very Very Sad That She Now Withers & Her Smile No Longer Commands
Embraced ~ Embrassé
Vickie
John
Newfie Hugs, Rose
Blessings and Love - Micke
Be always safe,
Karen
Love,
Sage
"...I learned
my lines, took my bows, discovered
the exhilaration of applause,
and the pleasure of pleasing Liz,
who taught me the ways and whys of grammar,
taught me to speak, speak up, speak out,
taught me to write for the fun of writing,
taught me to know myself
better."