Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 11 • Fall 2004 • Featured Writer • Poetry

Devotion

Frances Varian

For Dinah's Christina Rossetti

There is a difference between kneeling and bowing
that has to do with endurance
You talk to God & swim in shadows

you say I believe

while catching snowflakes on your tongue
You recreate the watery communion for the others

My friend will quench the loneliness of
your mis-representation though she may seem an unlikely savior,
you are not the first stray she's taken in

You could both slip quietly into the fold,
cover your slender shoulders and smile
You could both pretend that faith was more
dumbluck than educated guess

Yet you walk swiftly through
late November, with London's ghosts
whispering in your ear, you imagine the snow falling,
all the water drops for your soul and yours alone

You will inherit the earth.
good luck with that

I love women who talk when no one is listening

Frances Varian

Frances Varian was a member of Seattle's National Poetry Slam team in 2000 and has subsequently performed on numerous stages across the country, including the Seattle Poetry Festival. At the September 2004 Bumbershoot Arts Festival, she debuted a feature-length, choreographed poem paying tribute to the victims of the Green River Killer. Her work appears in Without A Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class. tsunami, her independently published collection of poems, is available on franvarian.com [link defunct as of May 26, 2010]. She works as a queer/women's health advocate in Seattle where she lives with her amazing sweetheart and three dysfunctional cats.

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