Tweed

by M F Drummy

Close up of the face of a woman, photo by Alexandru Zdrobău
Photo by Alexandru Zdrobău@Unsplash

Partial to it, she decides to wear it to their wedding. A smart grey blazer from the thrift store. Conservative, her hair fades into it. Wire rimmed glasses, loose slacks, sandals. The Writer. A Lyft up the hill, alone. In the parking lot some people think they recognize her. Waves, nods, gossip.

summer breeze
quivering monarch
on the hot asphalt

An outdoor ceremony next to a golden creek, the stream low, dusk. Overhanging cottonwoods, kids on inner tubes, a string of lanterns along the bank. Wild strawberries. The second marriage for both of them, their children grown. Endless bills between them tossed in the basket at the AA meetings. A perfect evening: Moonrise through the clouds at sunset. The bride with a cornflower in her blond bun. Mirth all around.

milk powder from the heavens
their wobbly
prospects

A reception of gladioli, poppies, echinacea. Soul, salsa, funk, rumba. The Austin sound, down in the flood at Halibut Cove. She imbibes spiked stonefruit lemonade, dances with the young boys, dreams of manservants making her bed every morning. In her youth she rode a 10-speed over cobblestone, drank espresso, read Coleridge, punched fascists, peed in the alley. Goggles for the fog, dispatches from the front to us today. Cat on the windowsill. Knees up, in jeans.


M F Drummy

M F Drummy holds a PhD in historical theology from Fordham University. The author of numerous articles, essays, poems, reviews, and a monograph on religion and ecology, his work has appeared, or will appear, in Allium, [Alternate Route], Anti-Heroin Chic, Aureation, BRAWL, Emerge, FERAL, Heimat Review, Hemlock, Last Leaves, Main Street Rag, Marbled Sigh, Meetinghouse, Muleskinner, Persephone, Poemeleon, Prairie Home, The Word’s Faire, and many others.

More: https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/m_f_drummy


Comments

2024-Dec-01 19:26

A lovely mixture of contemplation, wistfulness, and varied images bring this piece down to the earth where we, as inquisitive observer, can witness the internal and the external as if it were our own.

Trilety Wade
2024-Dec-04 03:44

This is a wedding of sensations and contentment that I’d attend

2024-Dec-11 14:30

You do things with words that many people can only dream of. Creating imagery that's at once fully present and dreamlike, this piece showcases your skill and talent as a poet. Well done!