POEM
Canary
for Michael S. Harper
Billie Holiday’s burned voice
had as many shadows as lights,
a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano,
the gardenia her signature under that ruined face.
(Now you’re cooking, drummer to bass,
magic spoon, magic needle.
Take all day if you have to
with your mirror and your bracelet of song.)
Fact is, the invention of women under siege
has been to sharpen love in the service of myth.
If you can’t be free, be a mystery.
Rita Dove, “Canary” from Grace Notes. Copyright © 1989 by Rita Dove. Reprinted with the permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Source: Grace Notes (1989)
Rita Dove, who served as poet laureate of the United States from 1993 until 1995, has been . . . MORE »
More Poems by Rita Dove
Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target
MORE »
