MARIE C LECRIVAIN

THE DAME WHO MARKS TIME

She holds the level (and the cord),
in her hands, and watches the ocean
wear away the shore.

It’s impossible to lay the foundation
of a temple on shifting sands.
She tried many times, as a child,
with her trowel and bucket,
to execute the image burned
in her brain, a sanctum that could
hold all the love in the universe.

What she thought was love has turned
into something she can’t name. It fills
the cold heavy spaces within,
and tests the boundaries of her resolve.

She wraps the cord, three times, around
her left wrist, and then balances the level
on her right index finger.

She takes one slow stop forward,
and then another, until the sun sets
and the sands have cooled
beneath her feet.

MY FRIEND, HENET…

patrols the shores of Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu, and Zuma, from dawn until dusk. On weekends, she waitresses at the Paradise Cove Beach Cafe, where she regales diners about when she saw James Dean’s ghost whizzing up the 101. At the end of her shift, she takes crab and fish scraps outside to the pod of pelicans (and a flock of seagulls), who waits patiently by the dumpsters. She’s the only person I’ve ever seen who can stroke their soft white necks with no repercussions.
On Wednesdays, she heads to the Venice Beach Boardwalk to sell her homemade starfish, sea glass, and feather dreamcatchers. If prompted, she’ll open her mouth to belt out a great pelican yawp to frighten and delight her customers. Her dark, intense eyes see you coming from a mile away. She’ll reveal, in no uncertain terms, the sex of an unborn baby to expectant mothers, or give a word of comfort, as well as her mobile number, to those who are taking their final steps into the West.
I never worry about Henet. There’s always a pelican nearby, and no one wants to mess with her literal and spiritual progeny.

Marie C Lecrivain is a poet, publisher, and curator of the literary blog, Dashboard Horus: A Bird’s Eye of the Universe. Her work has been published in Gargoyle, Nonbinary Review, OMNI Reboot, Orbis, Pirene’s Fountain, and various online/print journals.