Blitz And Filigree Poem by Alizon Kiel

For my grandmother Catherine Kennedy
CR 2010



The necklace chain held a bit abreast

A bit above my open palm

Lowered serpentine and cool

Blackened and silver

Tarnished and bent links

The cool serpent held the pendant pendulum

A cross rocking back and forth

.

Yet I could tell there was no future hanging in chains

No future sounds

Past screeching noise and muffled-muted-covered-mouth screams and rains of glass

Muffled screams only escape through fissures in a palm to fall on deaf ears that cannot hear for the explosions and bricks falling and sums crashing
through and blown-out nearby windows

Prayers falling on still deaf ears for the sound of bombs and glass breaking and red and black flashing and the sun blotted out in coronas of black circles
and fire blue and blinding yellow

Sometimes there was no sun when she looked up

At night she still prayed to the same ghosts in the dark

The same incomprehensible words and desperate disjointed begging

.

She wore that chain for years and through those years and years ago I never would have taken it from her or held it in my hand

And for most of the time she was around I could not bear the sight of it

It weighed too heavy with cruelty and pain

Even once outside all that broken glass

Even the air surrounding it was cold

.

She had memories so loud

Memories without smell or touch or sight

Memories so loud she could feel blood in her ears

So when she dropped the tumbler glass she more pronounced her wince in pain

Seeing slow-motion explode into shards

She cut her foot and even the cut seemed loud

It left a red footprint just under the refrigerator door

.

She collapsed nearby

She died

To us the room was quiet

Yet up until the moment she floated away her ears still seemed so loud

.

The necklace chain held a bit abreast

A bit above my open palm

Lowered serpentine and cool

Blackened and silver

Tarnished and bent links

The cool serpent held the pendant pendulum

A cross rocking back and forth

One I had never worn until today