Aralee
Felt Strange 1943 – 2013
You got to walk this lonesome valley
You got to walk it by Yourself
She
was a Felt, our Felt
“not that they have what we don’t have,
But that we can be close to them and they
will expand into what it is we lack… they fill
a place in us we didn’t even know we didn’t
have…
”
Oh
nobody else can walk it for you
you got to walk it by Yourself
She
was a Felt indeed
“not a Thought, not a person
who touches us via our minds
so much as via our souls even
more than our hearts, Ay…
She was a Felt.”
&
she loved her felt peeps
&
we were All her felt peeps
“Felts have many many lovers,
and Felts are all so frequently
all alone… ”
y’all’re
them & know
y’all’re
them without
a
shadow of a doubt
“she knew how to share –
I suppose it was another
of her teachings, right
up there with
how to mourn… ”
&
us in her wake are
her
Felt-dwellers
Felt-dwellers
all
“not so many Felts around, y’know…
kind of a rare breed, akin to rara avis, eh?”
o my Love
my true Love
I hunger
for Your
that
you are loved despite
this
the Known, shared
“we are attracted to the Felts
in our lives because of certain
talents we do not have… Felts are
squarely in our blind spots, big as life… ”
that
You were Felt & known
we
Felt-dwellers knew You
knew
& Know & felt
Your
very Felt indeed
*
Dancin'
in the Wake
yea,
sun’s
goin’
down, Aralee
let’s
go swimmin’
light
as ash you are
girlfriend,
let’s go
dancin’
in yonder spring
nay,
girl, lemme
dance
your ash in
that
River, you do
know
the One...
bitter
clear River
River
Rive & begone
River
Dove & begot
River
of Many Returns
of
Birmingham
&
Manhattan, too
River o’ Grief & no relief
River o’ Grief & no relief
River
Flow & River Swing
floodtide
weep Rejoice !
floodtide
woe Bedamned !
you
know the One
we’ll
be back in twenty
maybe
half again
we’ll
be back, girlfriend
dancers
swim
the
floodtide vale
Dancers
!
swim
the blooded veil
see
thru every wave
sing
& sear, my love
sing
& seer, o Poet
those
wavelets
o
how they suck & lap
ankle
drag slap & chill
bullfrog
burp
to
beat the band
Benny
the Hat bird-rapt
down
beneath those
weep-dript
boughs
sax
tones bend
&
laughter, too
toothsome
you
skip
to m’lou
toot
sweet, too
o
we’re dancin’
White
Girl
dancin’
down the Flow
**
Sleight
of Disappear
nor
that halved be wholed or that sink up-float no
no
no as margareta Queen of Denial’d always say
that
Aralee was still here her still heart-Felt declared
too
frail to hold dispute with or weep wide-eyed oh!
how
the already gone-on guffaw down raw oysters!
(y’ever
eat raw oysters with Aralee ? we did… we
did)
gal
was a smoker’s all I know don’t y’know’s why
Izzy
went off walking with Linda at Grady’s that day
Ben
stood still in the rain so long down by the riverside
tonight
we danced in the wake an eight hours drive away
a
whole week & one day later slow dancing till admitted :
I
injure easy but recover quick’s how it got put out not
that
that’s a lie but neither was our Dance & you were
taller
& heavier & the Dance ended over easy all alone
***
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