Amulet (poem)
Amulet
First carry a sofa onto the stage
Foreshortening allows the table feet away
The table is useful, its magazines and small props
Prompting lines of dialogue
The actress has complained about the velvet
That carries light beautifully but catches at her tights
She and he perch in three-quarter pose
More athletic than viewers can surmise
A cup that to, in her dressing room, she speaks lines
Never quite fixed in memory the song they argue over, entering
Insensible, she wants to call it, and the joke of course
Is her rendering of it, the breathy oohs of the prelude
His parents are there, behind the bar, stage rear
No, she seems nice, the mother says, where she can hear
Did you want coffee, or more alcohol? Dear?
Sudden blackout and her alone in the spotlight
Glimmering to a soft blue bright
I can make this work out glorious-ly
I can fool the world, but I can’t me
Oh, to make a wish and have it be!
Her costume has changed, though the iridescence of her dress
Is an effect, she rises to her feet and step-glides left
Other dancers in dark, shining bodysuits, move catlike
The amulet that is the sorceress-aunt’s bequest
She lifts overhead to a faux-starry sky
The prop has an LED, her thumb sets the switch
Do I wish him more than ordinary?
Is it plain and good I want?
Play the princess in a hero’s story
Or myself be Lancelot?
Is it love surpassing love I dream of
Or a friend to hold my hand
As we grow old…
For we’ll grow old
Do I dream him with a dashing humor
Banter quips devil-may-care?
Me the naïf in a gamine’s story
Femme fatale, or stern Jane Eyre?
Is it life embracing life I dream of
Or a friend steadfastly there?
As we grow old…
For we’ll grow old
The Bride
Amulet Two
(2020, Stephanie Foster)