By: Lara Dolphin

“Unsharp Masking the Mind”

I found the resident facing a large sunny window seated at a tiny desk.
Staff had staged it with paper, folders and pens to remind him of his office.

I helped him to his feet, and we walked through the lobby of the secure unit
down a long hallway to the sensory room.

The the scent of lavender and gentle music greeted us
along with bubbling fountains and ribbons of light.

He spoke of the World’s Fair and his Coney Island days
not as something distant but as something closer and crisper.

It was as if the past had been stripped of the gauzy blur of memory
enhanced and thrown into relief, a life no less real or worthy.

“Frank Oppenheimer Explores The Wave Organ”

Beyond the Golden Gate Yacht Club
Alcatraz Island looming in the distance
the unremitting bay beats
against a jetty built of tombstones

Water slaps at pipes
gurgling through PVC
to make a splashy
untuned symphony

Suddenly he is back
along the Hudson of his youth
or sailing the Kattegat
like Bohr’s young son
lost to drowning

or beneath the Jemez Mountains
the great blast thundering in his skull
or in the valley of the Rio Blanco
where cattle are dying of larkspur

and he wonders whether memory is a choice
or whether the surging tide of the past
carries us on a current of consequences
toward our future and yet undiscovered selves

“Redeeming Yahweh”

When Old Scratch comes a-calling
To test and torment your true servant
Job will be your moral luck

With humility and grace
He will not curse nor turn against you
But choose to darken counsel

Through surefooted grace and strength
His resolute courage will prevail
To end the reckless wager

That you in your soigné robes
And esemplastic power may still
Be the divine and almighty

“Rogations for a Ugandan Child”

May the sillage of Mugoyo that your mother carries from fire to table
Wake you from resplendent dreams to the start of a new day.

May the uniform scrubbed by hand in a plastic tub then hung on the line
Be crisp and dry and ready to wear.

May the fragrant oil rubbed into your scalp
Make your braids neat and smooth.

Tugende, Mukwano! May your father’s electric Tuk Tuk
Convey you safely to school before he heads to work.

May the new metal roof above your classroom
Protect the desks from sun or heavy rains.

May the teacher’s chalk and your No. 2 pencils and notebook
Last until all the lessons have been taught and learned.

May you grow and live and shine.
May you be of service to your people.

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A native of Pennsylvania, Lara Dolphin is an attorney, nurse, wife and mom of four amazing kids. Her chapbooks include In Search Of The Wondrous Whole (Alien Buddha Press), Chronicle Of Lost Moments (Dancing Girl Press), and At Last a Valley (Blue Jade Press).