Caught in Lesser Tragedies

by Janet I. Buck

In a beauty shop called Perfect Look
your blindness sits upon a couch.
Companions are two bright white canes
and hands that grope for
utter sensitivity. I watch you
in the wide mirror of a nervous room,
where people speak of everything
except that that. That fact
they cannot reconcile.

Your patience in a line of clients
passing you. Hurried by a slipping sun.
We have the blessing of seeing it set,
take its palette quite for granted
writing off its orange shade
like marmalade beside a slate
of common toast.

We wonder why your smile is broad.
Caught in lesser tragedies
of grocery lists and kids
to channel to and from their school bells.
At scissor time, you cannot see
and follow the blades with fingertips.
Grapple with a hue of darkness
most of us will never know.
Closer to the truer edge
of canyons traveled by their dust.
The ones we've buffed like fine antiques.
Your courage makes my weakness shine.

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Magazine.com, CrossConnect, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Kimera, The Rose & Thorn, 2River View, Southern Ocean Review, Disquieting Muses, Urban Spaghetti, Perihelion, Mind Fire, Born Magazine, pif, 3rd Muse, Verse Libre Quarterly, Big Bridge, pith and hundreds of journals world-wide. Buck was one of U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. In January 2001, Art Villa Records released Janet's first audio CD of poetry and music called Before the Rose. It is available at: http://www.artvilla.com/shopping/poetry/rose.htm To hear a sample from the CD, go to: http://www.artvilla.com/mp3/umbrellas.mp3.
Note: Featured author in January 2001
E-mail: JBuck22874@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
Poems: "The Orphan", "Caught in Lesser Tragedies", "The Broken Promise", "The Gargoyle", "The Going", "The Bag Lady", "Rushing Toward Entelechy", "The Paralyzed Apocalypse", "Frozen Sonnets", "New York, New York", "Live on CNN", "America Under Siege", "Gutter Balls"
Links: Hot Links: Janet I. Buck, Janet's Latest Interview, Desideratum's Doggie Dish, Author's Den, Active Amp.org—Features Janet I. Buck, Poetry Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck, The Part-time Postmodernist (August 2000), San Francisco Salvo, Moongate: Janet I. Buck, Offcourse, The October Country , Cafe Society: Poetry Life & Times, Kookamonga Square, The Adirondack Review , janetbuck.com, Funky Dog Publishing—Janet Buck's Strawberry Nipples, Athens Avenue—Janet I. Buck, One World-One Heart Exhibit , Ygdrasil: Issue 9 September 2000