Chicagoetry: Bronze Gilead

BRONZE GILEAD

What sticks, sticks.
What sings,

sings.
Faith is the daughter

of a lilac
dusk,

a breach
of blues

with a bit
of bronze.

O yeah: I found
the mind--

and forgot
my life,

this long, strange
cage rife

with strangers.
Faith: every day

I find
a way,

a great song,
a kind word,

a deliriously
beautiful

face.
Grace, safe space,

this kind
of thing.

I find small,
fine lace

here in this semi-imaginary metropolis
littered with strong, silent post-

modern
extravaganzas, delirium

or terror
just a whisper away.

Each day
I find a new

face. I abhor
waste, I adore

silence.
I found the mind

waiting, wishing, wanting,
hissing. Then it paused

for grace:
my daughter

singing quietly
in the

lilacs.

-

J. J. Tindall is the Beachwood's poet-in-residence. He can reached at jjtindall@yahoo.com. Chicagoetry is an exclusive Beachwood collection-in-progress.