Read More: A brief interview with Jack Stewart
At Home with Angels
They used to love the limelight,
showering upon the choreography of daily life
the fireworks spreading from their wings,
and the vast production
of dreams. But this generation
is more reserved, always choosing
to stand to the side,
the way the bottle of wine
always defers
to the bowl of fruit in the still life.
At my house, you sometimes embarrass them.
When you surprise one
leaning against the windowsill,
caressing the curtain.
Or humming a second longer
when the air conditioning quits.
Madame Vuillard and the Hydrangeas
1.
Standing up from the bath,
she sets the sponge down,
then steps out into better light
and a porcelain dressing gown.
She leaves behind the heavy smell
of steam and a world fading back
into itself. The guests will
arrive at six.
2.
He wanted something intimate
that she would recognize, a private
moment that seemed public. Outside
the breakfast window, the hydrangeas
were in bloom. After the storm they hung
heavy in the new sunlight, like lungs.
They looked like sponges she might squeeze
over back, shoulders, breasts. He thought
of her preparing for the party, rubbing her knees,
her arms, and the sponge lifted again […]
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In the Luxembourg Gardens
White and angular as a corset,
the fountain dissolves into itself
as if it had a question to ask
but thought better of it.
I would rather risk
a thin moon over a side street
where the only thing I could see of you […]
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Jack Stewart was educated at the University of Alabama and Emory University. From 1992-95 Stewart was a Brittain Fellow at The Georgia Institute of Technology. His work has appeared in Poetry, Image, The American Literary Review, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Southern Humanities Review, and other journals and anthologies, most recently in A New Ulster and Military Experience and the Arts. Jack lives in Coconut Creek, Florida, and works at Pine Crest School.
“At Home with Angels,” “Madame Vuillard and the Hydrangeas,” and “In the Luxembourg Gardens” originally appeared in Poetry, Gettysburg Review, and Poetry and were runners-up in the 2018 Editor’s Reprint Award (poetry).
Read More: A brief interview with Jack Stewart