Other than her love for her sister Rose, I know nothing of Evelyn’s loves, lost or found. But as one who once was two and now is one, I know she knows whereof she speaks in this deeply poignant poem.
who can say
who sings
who can know
whose voice
rides on the
poplar leaf
on the silver
tree swing
in the throat
of the nightingale?
once she was two
who now is
one:
before the great
silence
left a star scar
only less light
than light
where her other
was.
who can say
whose voice
like a spent star
ricochets on the
untouchable
night?
Evelyn Coffey
"a star scar
ReplyDeleteonly less light
than light"
This is typical of Evelyn's remarkable imagery. Her sister and her mother shined brightly in the night of her consciousness, the night that she inhabited not as terror but as quiet and holy, the night that was visible even at midsummer noon. It recalls the stars on the dark water in an earlier poem a cinquian.