Columbine and Rue
- Columbine and Rue
We knew she’d lovedbeen loved by how shetaught Shakespeare,the anguish of regretstaining her voicewhen Henry turns hisback on Falstaff, deniesa love untidy. She sawin us these untidinesses,loved us for them.That’s not too strong aword, is it, for how a teachertends the statuaries sheplaces in students’ minds?Thick is the greenthere with longing andfury, little pebbledby regret or patience. Whattenderness it takes toplant, such a lotof raking, weeding, arespect for the grounditself, and yet sheshowed us a love thatdidn’t ravage equallywas not love,it could make you weepbefore a room of teenagers,caged in self-mockery. She daredus to feel, even for her. How oldshe seemed, scarves inspringtime, pilgrimages toRavello in summer, eyes mistyevery fall by the spectacle ofour unzippering before herbeloved bard, etched ontoour skins nowa passionate kiss. [End Page 189]
John Freeman is editor of the literary annual Freeman’s, and author of several books including How to Read a Novelist (FSG Originals, 2013), Maps (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), and Dictionary of the Undoing (FSG Originals, 2019). He has also edited a trilogy of anthologies about inequality, concluding with Tales of Two Planets (Penguin, 2020), a book on the uneven effect the climate crisis will have across earth. The Park, his new collection of poems, will be published in May by Copper Canyon Press. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages.
