Repeat. For Mother's Day. From Fat Poets Speak 2 - Radiance, by Frannie Zellman

A repeat. For Mother's Day. From Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly

Radiance                                                                      To My Mother

Frannie Zellman

Plump and radiant,

You adored them all

With your eyes.

Flowers in your hair,

You twirled your fan

From admirer to admirer

And led the boys

A merry dance

As you jumped from one

To the other

And winked at some

You didn’t care to know.

One summer morning

You raised your arms

And yawned

Into being

Another crop of young men

To appraise

To render helpless

In your presence

Turning, Circe-like,

humans

Into sea swine

Who lost their speech

And instead

Could only make raw, rasping sounds

Of love.

Tiny, thin now,

You stay beautiful

Not just in memory

But in the eyes of those

Who meet your eyes

And report back

To their officers

That yes, the danger

Still exists

And by god and goddess

What a woman to win

And to keep

If you can avoid the spell.

But of course

the fun lies still

in bringing down

The danger of your spell

And in the allure

Of singing their aches

To you

Without words

In a far, unknown place.

And for a few,

If they were once easy with words,

in trying to find the right sounds

to capture the essence

of your eyes

all at once,

Without fading.