Tuesday Poem on Monday - Where she comes from

Heaven has a lime-green sky - acrylic painting by Alisaundre van Ammers 1992

WHERE SHE COMES FROM

for Ali, aged seven

Where she comes from

Heaven has a lime-green sky.

Angels are hip, dressed

in up-to-the-minute fashion.

They exchange earrings

and bobby pins and fancy

braided belts. Trousers are

out - and sensible shoes,

of course - these musicians

are all ribbons and silk, soft

satin slippers and flight:

when they come down

to ground, they want

the feel of grass and soil,

of mud squelching between

their toes.

Where she comes from

there is always the possibility

of a dance around

the next corner.

CB

When she was seven years old, my daughter Alisaundre embarked on a magnificent painting of angels and their musical instruments... When she came to rendering the sky, she chose a brilliant lime-green. Her teacher at the time hauled the painting away from her as soon as she had finished and held it up in front of the class. "Ali's painting was looking good until she ruined it by making the sky lime-green,' she said. She instructed Ali to start over. (Ali gave me a word-by-word account after the event.)

I was completely outraged, of course, ready to roll up my sleeves and take her teacher on... but Ali insisted she didn't want me to intervene and would handle the situation herself. She went back to class the next day and began again... And when she came to paint the sky, she once again mixed up a range of brightest lime-greens. The teacher loomed over her desk and tried to meddle in Ali's process. But Ali stood her ground, held firm to her brushes and spoke her mind. "Excuse me, Ms. McIntosh," she said, "how do you know heaven doesn't have a lime-green sky?"

HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY, Angel!

***

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