What Fancied Her
Rikki Santer
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If a toilet seat can be a lyre
& applause stored in a box
then this is the story of a believer—
your closet in the candy-colored
language of clown—you with
a pimiento center & comfortable
as a sock, never ruffled or lacy
but blooming in tie-dye spider
spin or echoes of mandarin fish—
you were red-rubber-nose elated
to be here, up on your toes for
Bird’s Nest sandals you bartered
in Mongolia—crowned in a polka
dotted bowler from Milan—at your
finger tips a turquoise ukulele busked
for a decade at Carnival Madrid.
For your funeral—when black
could have absorbed everything—
we schemed to gather dressed
as White Face or Auguste
your ashes like apostle
plant petals flowered
the threads of a lake that for
a lifetime loved you back.
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Rikki Santer’s poetry has appeared in numerous publications both nationally and abroad including Ms. Magazine, Poetry East, The Journal of American Poetry, Hotel Amerika, Crab Orchard Review, Grimm, Slipstream andThe Main Street Rag. Her work has received many honors including five Pushcart and three Ohioana book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.Her eighth collection, Drop Jaw, inspired by the art of ventriloquism, was published by NightBallet Press in the spring. Please contact her through her website: www.rikkisanter.com
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Posted in Boudin 2020, Poetry and tagged in #boudin, #mcneesereview, #rikkisanter, Poetry