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Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 22.2 (2001) 20-21



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Esther Consorts With Hegai

Carol Barrett


Such wisdom: you taught my hips
to shimmy, my ankles jostle
in exotic shells. I unwind
a river of scarves
to play in perfumed rhythms
across my face. I've learned
to bind my hair with pearls,
arms with silver bands,
belly lace with amethyst.
You've shown me how to pull
the sapphire silk from back
to thigh, thread purple
satin soft between my legs
and snap it in the air.
And now you say, forget
such things? You read a map
of stars, foretell a meeting
of the heavens that adornment
merely mars. You bid me go,
empty of artifice, remembering
who I am, only that, only that. [End Page 20]
I will remember . . .
the smell of rain
on sand, the rushes
in the shallows of brooks. My hair
folds across my back like fronds
across a cloud. All those things
I knew as a child return to me -
the washing of feet, pomegranates
succulent and bright, the offering
of grapes in sunlight, leaves
softened in a moon of oil of olive,
the perfect eggs of pheasants
delighting even a bower of grass,
the flutter of yellow birds
winding through evening cattails
like some embroidery all their own.
When he takes me to him, it will be
the way I lift my face
to desert rain to catch the drops
upon my tongue, palms open
to the splash, the wonder of God
free for the taking.


 

Carol Barrett holds doctorates in both clinical psychology and creative writing. She works with doctoral students in women's studies, literature, and religious studies through The Union Institute in Cincinnati. Barrett received a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The poems in this issue are from her dissertation, "The Unauthorized Book of Esther: New Poems & Commentary on Revisionist Biblical Literature."

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