IN THE SILENT CINEMA MAGNOLIAS RAIN WHITE AGAIN
KAREN RIGBY
For you the theater’s hush
before a piano
introduces spring
the screen behind
lit with streetcars
a century gone
petals blowing through
their open sides.
For you even reels
alter their frames
to show a city
like none that ever existed:
none of the wars
or rectilinear graves.
Time skips so everyone’s
standing or rushing
away, but today petals
shook in fragrant song
continue to play.
Read the poem here if viewing on mobile for original formatting
Listen to Gymnopédie No. 1 by Erik Satie, selected to accompany Karen's work, below:
KAREN RIGBY (she) is the author of Chinoiserie (Ahsahta Press). A 2007 National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow, her poems have been published in The London Magazine, Australian Book Review, and Grain. www.karenrigby.com