Barry & Pfeiffer – Feb.14

Miranda Pfeiffer and Tina Barry traded art and words. Miranda shared this animation, “It Won’t Be Long,” with Tina:

View the full animation here.

In response, Tina wrote this poem:

Honeycomb

There were trees,
and beneath them
an apiarist’s bee box,
ugly in its simplicity,
with slits for windows.
An abandoned,
three-tiered tenement.

I had wondered about bees
in those boxes, their industry
so directed: The queen,
black wings glittering,
adored and loathed.

My eye to a slit:
No bustling inside
No extruded amber
Wings onyx straight jackets
A low hum of displeasure.

I once lived in an apartment
with too many roommates.
One initialed each egg
in its carton.
Another swigged scotch
till she stung.

I think of us now
in that warren of rooms,
our droning lives.
How small we became
to fit there.

* * * *

Tina shared this poem with Miranda:

Her Hair, a Braid

Lips wavy in the chrome teapot’s reflection,
you mouth for-ty, slowly, and again,
for-ty, as if it were a word discovered,
not the years since your mother’s death.

Would it help if I mention the boxes
in the basement?
She’s there, in a tin, loosely wound
beneath sepia tissue paper, a braid
to worry in your fingers.

I want to tell you I wore a coat
today with a fur collar
like your mother’s mink pelts.
Black and oily, they smelled
of crowded ships and herring,
wood smoke on snow.

In response, Miranda drew this, als0 entitled “Her Hair, a Braid”: