Saturday, October 15, 2022

MAGICIANS

by Katherine West




At first they just let us out for Christmas 
like Eleanor of Aquitaine 
in Lion in Winter

We were a bit cranky 
(like Eleanor of Aquitaine)
and it didn’t go well

Nevertheless, they kept trying 
and many called for our presence 
at Easter 

We sat between chicks 
and bunnies 
and tried to look fluffy

Better this time
as long as we didn’t speak 
or bare our teeth while eating chocolate rabbits 

Soon birthdays were demanded
like clowns or magicians 
no party was complete without us 

until someone pulled a baby 
out of a hat 
(instead of a scarf or a white rabbit) 

pink and plump 
and lisping mama
so that everyone could hear 

They had forgotten 
that we 
could do that 

They tried to lock us up  
citing the Constitution 
and the Bible 

but we had learned a thing or two 
from our time 
in the limelight 

When they came to take us away (again) 
we put our hands over our heads and clapped
like Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter 

We vanished 
(like Dumbledore)
but no one said we had “class”

Hidden in plain sight now 
we walk the streets barefoot 
leaving bloodprints behind us 

impossible not to follow 
We magnetize the races 
like Joan of Arc in Joan of Arc


Katherine West lives in Southwest New Mexico, near Silver City. She has written three collections of poetry: The Bone Train, Scimitar Dreams, and Riddle, as well as one novel, Lion Tamer. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Writing in a Woman's Voice, Lalitamba, Bombay Gin, The New Verse News, Tanka Journal, Splash! and Eucalypt, Writers Resist, and Feminine Collective. The New Verse News nominated her poem "And Then the Sky" for a Pushcart Prize in 2019. In addition she has had poetry appear as part of art exhibitions at the Light Art Space gallery in Silver City New Mexico, the Tambaugh Gallery in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and at the Windsor Museum in Windsor, Colorado.