Author: Lisa Marie

Cardboard Dreams

My cardboard dream has
been slashed by the hideous
boxcutter in the corner,
the one with the flesh handle.

Why do I describe my enemy
when you are blind as the
sweet pink Saturday?
It is the white Sunday who sees,
and he says nothing,
sends refrigerated love.

My enemy rents a room in
my house, unevictable
though he even looks as though
his name should be going, going, gone.
He pays me in paint chips left
on a palette I cannot control.
It is lead paint to go with my
old hats,
but the textures and colors
are gorgeous nonetheless.

I Met Another Headcoverer!

I was in Petsmart picking up some litter box bedding for Parsnip, when a girl stopped me and told me my veil was beautiful, and asked if I was Christian. She is too, and she wears veils to church! She’s Catholic, and in her parish headcovering is not uncommon. She said there’s even a couple of churches around here who do a Latin Mass and require women to cover. She said she’s thought about covering full time like I do, but she just isn’t sure yet. She always covers at church though.

It’s so refreshing to meet another woman who wears veils. She gave me a good recommendation for where to buy more infinity veils and mantillas, and I gave her a recommendation as well. I told her I was a Methodist and she was definitely surprised, which makes sense because headcovering is pretty uncommon among Methodists.

This may sound silly, but it warmed my heart to meet another woman who headcovers, even if she does not do it full time. I sometimes get looked at negatively for wearing veils. Some people really love my veils and I get compliments, but still many more are put off. It’s nice to see that other young women are wearing them too, and of course it is always nice to hear that someone likes my veil! My veils are beautiful to me, and it is lovely when someone else appreciates one of them.

She told me headcovering is coming back in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and I think that is wonderful. I hope that someday more Protestants (besides just the Mennonites) will start to cover. I am in some headcovering groups online, and I know there are a few Lutherans, evangelicals, and nondemoninationals veiling now. Just not many. Headcovering is such a beautiful, reverent thing and can bring so much joy. Once upon a time everyone practiced headcovering, especially in church. Yet in so many churches, especially Protestant churches, headcovering is now eschewed. I pray this beautiful, scriptural practice is revived. But whether it is or it isn’t, I will continue to wear my veils  in obedience to the Scripture that has been laid on my heart by God. My conscience is convicted.

It just filled me with joy to meet another sister in Christ who believes in headcovering!

The End of the World

At my window,

A gun.

In my mind,

extraordinary sexual and living acts

Demonstrated in dark colors.

 

Then a great red bang.

 

********

 

The scales of the grain feed

Sway with an unconscionable math.

 

After the man’s house grows rats

to provide epidemics,

One will advise you at home while you die –

Grateful to be out of the hail of the heat.

God’s Blessing

May my tongue be holy,

And my will be broken.

 

Fields shy away from me.

The city has offers me up,

Unwanted.

 

In my other language my dream

Is disturbing

the barbed wire fence beyond,

So many cutters cutting cutely.

 

My soul struggles

In scorching liquid glass.

 

His thumb print is the moon.

 

In His blessings,

designs of snow,

promises rare and sweet.

My Mode of Living

I’m free of rain.

I show my picture to the blank mirror.

I was not busy in my shiny days

and now I see

clouds of apologies ahead,

burning bronze.

 

My shape shifting selfishness

Folded into a skin box,

Origami.

 

My life was born for a while,

between sameness and joy.

 

Ten times I memorize myself,

candy candle

I have to light,

To guide kaleidoscope perception

Back home to me.

 

Interdependence is difficult and soft,

ad infinitum.