Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

 

Globus Cruciger

Outside the cinder block screen

past fig tree and laurel shade

hydrangeas turn whiter

than handkerchiefs and blouses on the line

than azaleas and snowdrops 

snowballs

and farther back whiter

than memory’s blanc—

orb in the royal infant’s hand—

mother’s flower and now

in wet summer bluer 

than her madonna 

violet as wounds

wine-dark globular 

galaxies hurtle away 

rubbing her forehead 

that translucent crown

as she sits at the kitchen table.

John Martone is the author of of Giovanni Pascoli: O Little One and Selected Poems, which appeared earlier this year from Laertes Books. His most recent collection of poems is Homelands, and he is currently translating the letters and writings of the anchoress Nazarena of Jesus, OSB.

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Published in the March 2020 issue: View Contents
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