She waits
crowned in bridal illusion
under glowing cobalt fruit,
twigs ribboned together
beneath cotton-colored clouds.
Harmonies tangle—
hollow echoes
carrying centuries of tradition
Mendelssohn’s wedding march,
a high-tech rebirth
on electric speakers.
Sudden blustering—
lightning forecast
creating ricochets of thunder
ripping through cascades of rain
hailing Captain Noah
until she stops,
takes a deep breath
to tame her wild self
and tells it, Max-like,
to be still.
Floods recede—
music chimes.
a woman emerges,
her candy-apple hair
crowned in roses and lace,
facing the bride waiting for her
cocooned in swathes of white.
Alison McBain is an award-winning author with over 100 published shorts, including work in Litro, The Mark Literary Review, and Quail Bell Magazine. Her poem “Assimilation,” published in the 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year finalist Aftermath: Explorations of Loss & Grief, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her debut novel The Rose Queen received the Gold Award for the YA fantasy category of the 2019 Literary Classics International Book Awards. She is lead editor for the small press publisher Fairfield Scribes, and associate editor for the literary magazine Scribes*MICRO*Fiction.
Latest posts by Alison McBain (see all)
- THE PERFECT DAY - 2nd July 2021