Two Poems | Valerie Griggs

Angels and Elephants

Not many cherubs; you didn’t trust them

to be angels. You wanted fierceness and awe,

not naivety. Once in a while, you’d rearrange

the curio, pose the angels at the ready,

making sure the soft interior light caught

their otherness. Interspersed among them,

the lucky elephants you selected from the herd

like Jacob at pivotal points: browsing in town

after an argument, at flea markets where you

found solace in bartering and fresh air, shopping

against fear, getaways after wakes: Vegas,​​ 

Atlantic City, Belmont, Aqueduct,

Santa Anita, Monte Carlo. You carried them

home intact from Lourdes to Saratoga,

the Jersey Shore to the Amalfi Coast, ​​ 

Kentucky, the Ozarks, Hawaii, Rome.

Gifts from friends—even I had the reward​​ 

of handing you specimens from Shanghai,​​ 

Nanjing, Prague. Here I am, dusting, sorting,​​ 

and packing them up for the move,

the garage sale. Shining beside beautiful

celestials, the most-earthiest of earth-walkers.

Your feet found granite as lies, drinking,​​ 

all manner of meanness washed away

the sands of life. You grabbed goodness,​​ 

wrestled it and displayed it in kindness

and vibrancy. You adorned the elephant

in the room with wings and swords.

Everything You Believed

Hansel and Gretel like to herd goats

one has lost its panpipe.

Dreams, prophecies and prison

walls and bars do not a cage make

gold from straw, no straw for bricks​​ 

Keynesian economics worse than​​ 

three beans for a milk cow. How now

the five planets align a spineless

harbinger muzzled, unable

to turn the other guanciale

given to Sunzi’s esteemed guest

at Banquo’s ghost parade. Three

witches eyeball the eight ball

rolling toward the corner pocket;

too much sleeping as life-sized pods

are neatly placed in your house

precisely where you rest

ye merry gentlemen who prefer

bonds, security to freedom

stones for bread, the Inquisitor said,

make the masses love the masters

who stop the pipes, build the cages,

and corner us in our homes.