Mary Shaw

04/11/2017

in the depths i was trying my best to play the flute on a straw. it was clear plastic, a little thicker than you'd typically get for a diet coke. it was more like a siphon and i suppose it was related to that comic situation where a woman, a doctor, who was trying to attract a man, was actually storing wine, then drinking it from a fine tube sewn in her bra.
       me, i was not trying to consume anything. instead i was trying to purse my lips, just right so as to make a pure sound.

and you got close a couple of times,

though there was also raspy static and a little too much breath. but i was determined to keep going, just as i am with

stacking these letters

next to each other, black on white, to see if i can please anyone including myself, 

blowing a kiss

to the world that rises and travels in a joyful sound.

Mary Shaw est professeure de littérature française des dix-neuvième et vingtième siècles à l'Université de Rutgers (New Jersey). Outre ses travaux universitaires, elle a publié deux livres pour enfants ainsi qu'un recueil de poésie intitulé Album Without Pictures (Halifax, N. S., Editions VVV, 2008).