for Anne with an E
Art consumes her every waking day
beyond the stained glass rectangular facade.
Come inside. Cross the multi-colored portal
decorated with vertical Mondrian glass.
Enter the foyer with its bulbed chandelier.
Fairly ordinary interior, 16 steps leading upstairs.
Go right into the first-floor guest bedroom
heralded with first edition children’s books,
inked postcards, Bingo board games
juxtaposed with overflowing baskets of yarn.
Kindly rest yourself on the Woodrow Wilson
lounge chair, presented to long-retired husband.
Move on up those wooden stairs into the loft
no less overwhelming with crocheted afghans
overhanging the bannister and walled ladders.
Perhaps you have the nerve to peer into her studio.
Quilts waiting to be sandwiched by machine,
ready for embroidery thread and Aurofill silks.
Sit on her wheeled chair. Take a quick whirl.
Turn into her closeted-computer space
unusually covered floor to ceiling with authored
veterans of poetry: Angelou, Clifton, Komunyakaa!
Water colored originals peek out between the shelves
‘xactly like she wants them to — visibility the key.
You interested in making an offer?
Zero chance she will sell.
The writer is a retired New Jersey public school educator, quilt maker, and poet who lives in Hamilton.
