El Jardi
after El Jardi by Ramón Calsina
In which direction does the weather vane point?
It points to the east of your longing.
Why is the windmill in constant motion?
To scumble your passion into flower petals. It helps them grow.
Whose coat was left on the bench?
The alabaster sculpture saw you put it there that spring.
?
Yes, you loved her.
♮
2021.4
Once you lost your pink flip-flop on the bus to the Atlantic City shore, and I helped you hobble through patterned casino-rugs to the boardwalk dollar store. Your flesh long ago slipped into one ocean then another. Each memory is an oyster shell with an accession number.
In our dream band, on contrabass recorder:
Elizabeth Catanese is a writer and artist who holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College and Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. Her poems have most recently appeared in The Night Heron Barks, The Pittsburgh Poetry Review, The Stillwater Review, OVS, Anomalous Press, Referential Magazine, and Calyx, and her chapbook Reiteration / Relationship is forthcoming from Harbor Editions in fall 2024. Her most recent books include A Student’s Companion for How to Write Anything (Macmillan, 2019), STEAM Jobs You’ll Love: Architecture and Construction (Rourke, 2018) and Mt. Olympus Theme Park (ABDO, 2021). Elizabeth’s mixed media paintings and installations have been exhibited in galleries at the College of Saint Elizabeth, Bryn Mawr College, Mercer County College, and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. Her YouTube channel Present-minded professors, created collaboratively with Kate Sanchez, is a companion to their College Mindfulness Workbook; it offers meditations and other mindfulness media for college students (and anyone who may need a bit of calm awareness in their lives!). Elizabeth lives in Philadelphia with her young sons and is an associate professor of English at Community College of Philadelphia.
Ran Off With the Star Bassoon 