Feminist publication 'The Opal Club' picks up freelance poem

FEBRUARY 2020 — Simultaneous relief and terror: That's how to best characterize my feelings when something that I've written is accepted by a publication. "Rosemond Crown is Not British" is no exception.

To call the piece an ode is somewhat 4th-grade-poetry-unit of me, but "Rosemond..." is that. Using simple language to underscore the muse's accessibility as member of the community, the narrator evaluates her foil's no-nonsense approach to problem-solving. While the narrator bemoans situations, viewing life complicated or unbearable, her muse is a weather vane to reason. By simply living well, the muse encourages the narrator to be better, to be less ungrateful.

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Rosemond Crown is Not British

The wisest woman I ever knew was twenty-two

She slept in the room next to mine

She wove the daily news

(Car accidents, shootings, bombings)

She braided hair for bread

(Friends, strangers, church-family)

Her hands shook with arthritis,

her belly trembled when she laughed

Sierra Leonean Mother Mary

When I complained about selfish things,

She didn’t meet my eyes

This was the greatest gift.

Photo by Gabrielle Wilkosz taken in the state of Terengganu in Peninsular Malaysia.