Two Poems by Charlotte Mandel
Birthday Inventory
in memoriam of Irwin D Mandel
I use as paperweights
awards
engraved with your name:
—bronze medallion
—amber crystal globe
—glass pyramid a prism
reaching for eternity
—three clocks
faithful to their batteries
arrow narrow hands
unequal in length and pace
clasping once an hour
—and I
since our wedding
engraved with syllables
of your name
sounded in tones
of love or scold
beat of my pulse
counterpoint
lift a glass
to your portrait
smiling on my birthday
exactly as it will tomorrow
Historic Flood Rondeau
August 2017
Sky's lost the turn-off valve—a river crests—
torrents uproot billboards, drown farm beasts.
Rubber dinghies row on street and highway.
Two-story roof's a life raft till doomsday
sky finds the turn-off valve.
Is that a child—hurry—quick nets are cast—
pull in a doll—open-eyed, bedraggled, dressed
in a daisy print, curls a thatch of hay.
Where is the turn-off valve?
Church bells mute with muck—no sun-day of rest.
Label climate change or biblical test—
rain swallows newsprint. Whatever's at play
ends in survivor counts. The runaway
sky's lost the turn-off valve.
Charlotte Mandel’s most recent book of poetry is THROUGH A GARDEN GATE, poems in response to photographs of the garden in Long Island created and photographed by Vincent Covello (David Robert Books 2015). A new collection, TO BE THE DAYLIGHT, is forthcoming from White Violet Press. Several of the poems are inspired by time on beaches in the Hamptons. Previous titles include two poem-novellas of feminist biblical revision—THE LIFE OF MARY and THE MARRIAGES OF JACOB.