by Laura Rodley
Cut from reams of white satin sprang Lawrence
of Arabia, my son Joseph fenc-
ing with a sword made of rough-sawn maple,
a yellow band round headpiece, a staple
from the house to hold it all in one place,
curtain cording his belt, the saving grace,
his sandals of brown leather geared for sand
even as hot as desert, Lawrence’s land.
“Awrence,” he yodeled through the house, so tall
I had to stand on a stool, fashion all
on top his head, long flowing headdress, sheik’s
gear changing a gentle boy, now not meek,
then out the door with friends with worthy cars,
too old for trick-or-treating, too young for bars.
Laura Rodley’s New Verse News poem “Resurrection” appears in The Pushcart Prlze XXXVII: Best of the Small Presses (2013 edition). She was nominated twice before for the Prize as well as for Best of the Net. Her chapbook Rappelling Blue Light, a Mass Book Award nominee, won honorable mention for the New England Poetry Society Jean Pedrick Award. Her second chapbook Your Left Front Wheel is Coming Loose was also nominated for a Mass Book Award and a L.L.Winship/Penn New England Award. Both were published by Finishing Line Press. Co-curator of the Collected Poets Series, she teaches creative writing and works as contributing writer and photographer for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. She edited As You Write It, A Franklin County Anthology, Volume I and Volume II.