She wears the seamless face
of a pre-Raphaelite angel,
her lips shape an unsung song
in a key you’ve never heard,
while her pearl-gray shoes
pose on a cumulous cloud.
Above her, a sacred arch —
a jump rope woven of rainbow.
She jumps and the rainbow
turns. Jumps and it …
This is an Impressionist painting
created in invisible oils.
Perhaps you would have hung it
over your four-poster bed,
or, better yet, by the back door,
just above where you feed
your consoling dog.
Penelope Scambly Schott’s recent books are WAVING FLY SWATTERS AT ANGELS and gOD: A RESPECTFULLY DIVERGENT TESTAMENT. She is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry.
