She Tells Him Her Secrets
by Patricia Wallace Jones
An Iowa native,
she speaks of North Yorkshire
where she was first born then born again;
goes on to speak of the loving stranger
who taught her Graves, about his muse,
how he admonished her to keep reading
The White Goddess, to learn all the trees;
built her a tall bed with three carved owls,
sent rain when she complained of drought.
And days she was weary from tending,
he chanted, trials and tribulations,
you always weather them, shipped sweet/tart
tomatoes up and over the mountains
to please her—all of this
while showing her ways to shift shapes,
tear tissue, soften the edges of paper mosaics.
Her therapist notes her dreams are quite vivid.
Yes, she says, they are gifts from a wizard.
When I say, I love you, he says, ibid.
