~ * ~

The First Quadrant

"Being in the shadow of A Superlative Somebody,
Turning around a magic orbit, forming essentially part
Of an essential symmetry,

The rising staircase
That carried me forward, stepped out the manner of steps
Ascending, one day ~

Which imposed upon us to roam
The house, idly, as though a game of Hide ~
& Seek

Were underfoot, underway, under the sheltering
Storming sky of Underwood,

I met her trying to see out of the window.
We pretended, as before,
We'd never met, as though a game, The Rules, an improvisation,
Each Rule, made up, step by step,
As we tooled along ...

She said to me ~
'Sit down. Make a pause. One moment.
Then I will concoct A Raison d'Etre for you
Not to go.'

I cried, 'O,
But why ~ ? O, why, O, why, O, why,
Me ~ ?"

~ Virginia Hooper,
From "The Lamentation"