Vicar
(for Adrienne Rich)


i am a constellation
i am andromeda, cassiopeia
both the given and the giver
shinning, scattered
as if broken glass along
the milky way in rigid
movements, edges
ambidextrous in my position

many masks dawn this face
this face wears many masks
we are all people, people who
like me, wear masks
and masks who wear their people

a peacock, pointed eyes
in diamonds, diamonds in the sky
adamantine dazzling universe
captured in the reticule
of lenses, curved and meant to see
of lenses created by the hands
of men who see

many have stood and many will stand
many will face their opposer's hand
but i have stood, yes i will stand
right here in the cauliflower band
in orders and rows, all in a line
dressed in red, dressed in wine

for i am a star, a single speck
a woman dressed in dressed as best
draped here in aluminum foil
an antenna to a new tomorrow
imaginary intergalactic walls
boxed inside my own little world
planetarium