Etude for Four Hands

The wicker hen is in fact ceramic. The anatomically
faithful
small-mouthed
bass is made from a thousand nails, hand-
hammered into oak.
Its tail and fins are copper leaf. Pino, pictured
propped in a sled,
is a female English
bull terrier
with an Italian masculine name. (Whoops)
Now she’s old, but when she was spry,
she dive-
bombed me
from the staircase, took a mouthful out of my glove
and ran; her teeth never touched my hand.
None of the ivy climbing the primary-
coloured walls
of the family room (and hung by hooks to the cornice)
is silk.
And none of the paintings C.S. painted, prior to ’41
in France,
hinted at all at her later radical opus.
The passion flower opens quickly to stay exquisite
for half a day.
Its coarse and artless hand-like leaves,
on the other hand,
grow rampant.

— ELANA WOLFF

(Originally published summer, 2001.)