Incantation

“Arbutus Reaching” by Ann-Marie Brown

These questions are silly
because of course I am standing on the ground
shouting up at an airplane.

You’re a water-colored doctor’s note.
Don’t not-go! Open! Isn’t it all letters,
Arriving day after day by a reliable hand?

Slice, and they may slice back.
Rip, and they dump out bill or check
or – hot dog! - Invitation.

Tell me truly, when will you show up
and where will you wear your yes?
I’m big as a dinosaur. I could overwhelm.

My balloon hands hang at the end of my wrists.
My legs grow all the way down
and fill up my shoes like pitchers of milk.

My teeth line up. My toes point forward.
Touch my nose tip. Behold the wild eyebrows.
Beware: I may not be hungry for your food.

My envelope doesn’t need your stamp.
You’ll be my dog walk, my white elephant.
Take my purple towel, my recipe dowry. 

I won’t have my vowels covered
with your syntax-paint. Tell me stories
about what’s wrong and I’ll not-listen.

Pleasure me your diatribe, your husky laugh
your snorting and huffing.
You’re no stone face. You’re a weeper!

Cry my hush-hush, my belly-acher.
Be my ambulance.
Know my lists, my scented shelf paper

all the pickle jars in the back of the pantry.
If you were any kind of vegetable
you’d be a sturdy potato and not even mind

a bit of rot. Cut it off and boil away.
These words are time-hooks and they draw you in.
You are the best joke. You begin, “As it turns out…”

Let’s invoke each other. Write my name
on a scrap of molasses-paper and bake it into a loaf of bread
and throw it into the river.

Then look for me in the sparkly dress
Look for me in the mail slot.

About the Author

Jennifer L. Hollis’s essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Harvard Review, The Rumpus, and other publications. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Cagibi, Breakwater Review, Atlanta Review, Entropy, and 8 Poems. She is the author of Music at the End of Life: Easing the Pain and Preparing the Passage and is writing a book about what she has learned (and refuses to learn) from two decades working in end-of-life care. Hollis is the project director of Harps of Comfort, an organization that provides live, remote music for isolated patients with COVID-19. You can connect with her at https://jenniferhollis.com

About the Artist

Ann-Marie Brown is a Canadian artist currently working out of a studio on the west coast of British Columbia.  Her oil and encaustic paintings have been exhibited across Canada & the United States, and have found their way into collections around the world.  To see more of her artwork, go to www.annmariebrownpaintings.com