“On Ceremony” by Wendy Videlock

Wendy Videlock

ON CEREMONY

Rituals, anthropologists will tell us, are about transformation.
—Abraham Verghese

In winter the house
of grief deepens.
Down

in the dark earth,
small mouths sipping.
Someone

reading, someone
seeking some
kind

of feeling. Some kind
of healing.
A child has eyed

a star

spangled banner,
the grey dove’s
feather,

another bleak
scandal. There,

in the window, someone
burns
a solitary candle.

from Poets Respond
January 21, 2021

__________

Wendy Videlock: “A reflecting pool and a song of grief and grace reminded me we can’t, of our checkered past, unknow, or erase.” (web)

Rattle Logo