Bless Me

Hellen van Meene

Bell Echinacea (mp3): She opened the clasp of her purse and began rummaging through layers of classical piano, falsetto, and handclaps. From deep inside - nearly up to her elbow - she plucked two small mirrors shaped like perfect circles. One remained like a quarter in her right palm as she placed the other atop her left cheek like a monocle. She peered from behind it, giggled at me, and raised the second above her right cheek. She said I could finally see myself in her eyes as her poetry had always promised. I told her she was beautiful, but much too literal.