by Lisa Eve Cheby

Forget making it beautiful,

it is still the only thing I can do better
than my mother: this walnut torte,

even this living alone, a display,
an exaggerated suffering,
will not garner her admiration
though I rarely indulge in

pleasure. The lack of it, makes me
clumsy, like an angel trapezing despite
the fact that he has wings.

Do you know the password
to get inside the state of mind
where you can hear the choirmaster

on whom we depend to know when
to crescendo and when to adagio?

Though it is all moot:
neither my mother nor I could sing

but sometimes, sitting on the train,
or in the stacks of the library
a voice speaks to me
rhapsodomantic as desire.

 

Lisa Eve Cheby, a librarian, poet, and daughter of immigrants, holds an MFA from Antioch University and an MLIS from San Jose Stat University. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in various journals and anthologies. Her chapbook, Love Lessons from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is available from Dancing Girl Press. lisacheby.wordpress.com