AN OLDIE

Photo by S. Auberle

NO HALO

Not supposed to write

poems about angels,

so my writing teacher says.

No sunsets, roses, rainbows, doves...

hard realism, he says.

But I like angels.

Grievous, fallen, tarnished,

those flying too close to the ground,

like this one I found today

in the second-hand shop

on the shelf marked "damaged goods."

Serene, exquisitely so,

and I could find nothing wrong

till I turned her upside down and read

angel with no halo.

Whatever she'd done

to lose her halo, it was nothing

I hadn't done too,

or at least seriously considered.

Damaged goods? Who isn't?

~ S. Auberle

Going through some old photos, this angel spoke to me today, so since nothing new has popped into my head, I thought I'd let her have her say...she's a recycle, but she IS green...

From Crow Ink, 2009 Little Eagle Press