MARY JO AMANI
Rapture
Pay careful attention lest with all the fluctuations of thoughts the greening power which you have from God dries up in you. —Hildegard von Bingen writing to an Abbot 1 I bought an alabaster blue bird when I was only nine visiting Florence with my family. I remember nothing of the city now but the store, everywhere I turned, unscratched beauty. It seemed to me a grown-up purchase, something precious wanting me and late at night I stroked its calcite body and whispered who? 2 Little girl lovers, we took turns playing the naked princess in bed, the other a naked prince. Even J’s earlobes dripped in the heat. She moved away when I was twelve. I sent the blue bird with her.
130 | PHOEBE 49.2