- To the Girl Who Mistakes Family for Reunion, and: If Leonardo
To the Girl Who Mistakes Family for Reunion
Is your constantly hiking a way of sayingI would rather be anywherethan at this kitchen table, staring into your eyes,rather move through forestswith four found men than face you,sister, at this reunion? I wouldn't understand,would I: safe artist in the gridded city,far from your cliffs & campfires. Still,I sit at the opposite end of this table,blowing a cup of tea. Rosemarygrows in our father's gardenwhere we once dug, long beforethe battle between skyscraper & tree,when we were two girls, only,running inside the colonial house,stealing cookies, building libraries,chopping off doll hair, chuckingsmall friends out windowsfor the simple thrill of retrieval— [End Page 48]
If Leonardo
On the plank, one stringmakes a rabbit's face:
wrinkled & half-smilingwith one ear
perked. If Leonardocame by this accident,
what would he see?Perhaps a battle scene
or a dress seamlifted by cautious hands.
Trying, I find myselfglued to my only
line of sight—the eye,unwilling to let go;
the damp rabbit mouth,impossible to reset— [End Page 49]
Maya Pindyck is the author of Friend Among Stones (New Rivers P) and the chapbook Locket, Master (Poetry Society of America). Her poetry has recently appeared in Narrative Magazine, esque, Southern Indiana Review, and the New Haven Review. She is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University's Teachers College and lives in Brooklyn.