Divine Honors

Balance

Balance Circular ear ornament inlaid with a mosaic of turquoise, mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli, red Spondylus shell, and green stone, surrounded \>y a shell ring and border of gold beads. —Chimu culture,northern coast of Peru Postcard from your drawer, daughter, when the need comes and I pull on the handle to open, take, and send away some message: come! The last gift of earrings I gave came from India, silver lace fobs hung from a scrolled wire,tiny malachite tongues at the tips: Happy Birthday.' The last gift of earrings I got came from Indonesia, silver half globes with a golden nipple on each domed center, ear breasts we loked, touching and touching: Live! The lobes of my ears are fleshy and large, flushed with health and sturdy for ornament. To pierceeach I employed the services of a surgeon, bribed my best friend with a martini to come along. In the waiting room she held my hand. On the surgical table I stayed still whilethe nurse measured and marked with charcoal the equidistant point on each lobe where the needle would go in. Tattoo the blank breast with a nipple, alternative advicebut I hold out for an ornament. In the long silverwinter 35 I recoveredfrom surgery I pinned eachday to my shirt some concoction of old buttons from her grandmothers legacy.She glued together what I seemed to need, pin for nipple I wore, day in day out. Now I fancy some commissioned shape of lapis lazuli Yeats might like, or I fancy exactly in the proper shape of a woman who nursed babiestwo years of her lengthening life: some mother-of-pearl drops for milk, some blue veinedmarble for the hardness of full breasts, some silky pin back, something new and fabricated by hands, by my daughter's human hands. 36 ...