"Prophet" by Colin Michael Shaw

Colin Michael Shaw was one of ten readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the April 4 reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, May 23, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Eileen G'Sell, Susan SpitFire Lively, and Robert Nazarene.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Prophet

Awkward introductions and casual fumbling
Relieve the tension and excuse the shaking girl
Who sat where you belong,
Lovingly weaving the basket I can put my feelings in later.

But I can’t see your simple spring cotton, ordinary beauty, sensible shoes...
Only your North City lights,
“Little lavender colored mints,
Teacups hung on hooks,
And pirate’s flying saucer”-
Because the multicolored jewels that spill from your lips
Make me “feel like I have tears in my eyes”.

So I close them, acquiesce,
To concentrate on your careful telling,
Of “scribbled notes in dove-blood ink on yellowed vellum”,
Delivered by the harried prophet from outside the cafe,
To you, then me --
Secret whispered from the edge of my memory,
Told softly as Grandmother’s hands, neatly folding linen napkins,
And a with kid’s smile, behind intelligent eyeglasses
Now I know what he said, but won’t repeat,
In a language I can’t speak,
But now understand.

-- Colin Michael Shaw