Lynne Shapiro | I’ve Read the Room

I’ve Read the Room

 

 

The photo of me in a velvet dress I wore ice skating with my mother at Rockefeller Center when I was small.

 

The little coat in Shindler’s List.

 

The neighbor’s hair (more towards the orange) of which I was jealous.

 

Stella’s 30-year-old, slider turtle “ears.”

 

My favorite pair of readers.

 

One of two loomed Lithuanian bookmarks that grace my writing desk.

 

The two-toned spine of Yi-Fu Tuan’s Passing Strange and Wonderful.

 

The 26 (times two) luminous leaded squares of the Dutch stained-glass doors that lead to our garden.

 

The timid male cardinal (due to his stand-out hue?) and his less timid, subtly colored spouse.

 

Brilliantly backlit, at times, the dot of color that informs us the male downy woodpecker is at the suet.

 

Rooftop peppers that punctuate the winter palette, strewn throughout the garden by squirrels.

 

Kitchen jars filled with smoked and sweet paprika.

 

The ristra I strung from shishitos that changed color at summer’s end.

 

The speckled comb of my mother’s folk art rooster that’s come to our house to stay.

 

 

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Lynne Shapiro has been a writer-in-residence in England, Morocco, and Spain. An arts educator for many years, she worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art and was once an assistant to Susan Sontag. Lynne’s first chapbook, To Set Right, was published by WordTech Editions (October, 2021). Her book, Gala, is forthcoming from Solitude Hill Press (March, 2022). She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey with her husband and elderly turtle. For more information and upcoming events, please visit her website; www.lynneshapiropoet.com