Marianne Zarzana
is an assistant professor of English and Speech at Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minnesota. She has an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Her poems have appeared in Farming Words, Dust & Fire, Blue Earth Review, Minnesota River Review, Lotus Bloom Journal, and others.
She lives in Marshall with her husband Jim, an English professor.
—Back to Bumbershoot Contents—
|
A Canticle for the Freckled
Blessed are those who, in the beginning,
stood too close when the shit hit the fan
for they shall be called freckled.
Blessed are the aunts who told me
freckles were angel kisses
for they taught me stories can hold truth.
Blessed are those taunted on the playground,
called Freckle-faced Strawberry and worse,
for they shall learn snappy comebacks.
Blessed is Mattel who created the Midge doll
for then I could almost see my reflection
in Barbie’s cute and oh-so-lightly freckled friend.
Blessed are the men who tried to seduce me
by asking if they could count my freckles
or connect them into new constellations
for they drew freckles into a world of pleasure.
Blessed is my husband for as a boy he had crushes
on freckled girls, and now he loves even
those places on my body bereft of freckles.
Blessed are Jane Austen’s characters made to wear
bonnets to avoid becoming odious, freckled things
for they were pale and sheltered creatures
deprived of the full force of sun on skin.
Blessed is sun screen lotion with SPF 15
for it protects and gives me a freckle tan
as I dig in the dirt of my garden.
Blessed is Gerard Manley Hopkins
who wrote with grace of pied beauty, of all things
dappled and speckled, a man ahead of his time.
Blessed is my mother, who I see in the mirror,
for sending me that particularly Celtic parcel of DNA.
Blessed are all those who journey long and wide and deep
enough for one day they too shall finally be at home
in whatever skin they are in.
|
