After Sorrows     

      ©2019 Jackie Huss Hallerberg

 

      ...who would believe

        they could fall so in love with mortals...

                                            Lucille Clifton

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We were so closely coupled —

those old sorrows and my desires.

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I welcomed them all, held on to them,

the way a cup and saucer fit together, each in service

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of the other, each a mirror to the other's scars.

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We danced and dangled from Fate's fingers,

tangoed while angels prayed and musicians played

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until at her whim, she set us free.

So light and worthy now —

 

our lives steeped in grace. 

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published in The  California Quarterly - 2019

       

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After the Holy Days     

      ©2017 Jackie Huss Hallerberg

 

 

Maybe Mary felt like this
after the shepherds retraced the hills
and the wise men rode back to their riches,
when the star pointed another way
and the inn's rooms stood vacant.
 
After she had labored so hard,
given her light to the world,
after the celebration and presents,
there was nothing, but her
and the baby, who was born human,
his eyes opening and closing
in that half-life before he would awaken.
 
Now there was the long stretch
as the holy days turned ordinary,
and her nipples cracked from
his sucking. 
 
Lonely and tired she must have
walked into January, taken the ornaments
off the tree, the wreath from the door,
not even knowing
what she had begun.

  

 

 

published in The 2018 Sitting Room Anthology -

       "Everyone Loves a Good Fairy Tale"

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