The poetic city: “From Subject to Object 6/21/2013”

Many of Helen’s friends at the 2019 French Quarter Fest, thinking of her.

A Suite for Miss Helen: From Subject to Object   6/21/2013

Sitting in the garden 

Side by side 

Watching the birds

Listening to the clarinet 

Dancing to the bass

While Miss Helen sings of Avalon 

With lyrical bits snatched from the abyss 

By a melody 

Buried safely in neurons

Yet to be lost. 

And I wonder what … 

What I would have thought

If I had known

Twenty years ago 

When first we danced 

That I would be here 

Side by side 

With Miss Helen 

Wheelchair bound

Mind adrift 

Dancing in the ruins 

Watching her slow transition

From subject to object. 

And I wonder

What I should think 

Knowing what I know

Seeing what I see 

Myself in a garden

Counting the birds

Wheelchair bound

Dancing in the ruins 

Twenty years hence

When my turn comes

To make the transition

From subject to object.

_____

© Reece Burka 2/1/2019