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JENNIFER
GUSACK
Jennifer
Gusack graduated from The Colorado College in the winter of 1999 with a B.A. in
Comparative Literature, after having attended a semester at La Universidad del
Salvador in Buenos Aires. She has since been expanding her knowledge of the art
of storytelling via writing, acting, singing, and traveling (whenever possible).
She has been a teacher, a librarian, a translator, and continues to thrive from
wearing many hats. She currently resides in Manhattan where she is always on the
lookout for new bike paths and great coffee.
KNIGHT'S
PALETTE, PALETTE'S KNIGHT
A sleepless knight will do anything
to protect his castle.
He stands at attention
upon a stairwell of cement
and listens to rain collect
in sunken sidewalks.
Sleepless knights bombarded with rain.
Sunken sidewalks,
How poorly they drain, he thinks.
A knight stands at attention.
Upon him moons reflect.
Through cold, stone walls
a breeze brushes a knight
too erect to shiver
in armor of shining neglect.
That same forest maiden
stares back at him tonight,
pressing him tightly.
What’s your story? She wonders.
I stuck in a canvas,
you, in a castle,
imprisoned by circumstance.
But imagine, she smiles
from within the impression
of somebody else’s sky.
The dragon, the beast, the dream!
Even if we can’t dance,
the bridge, the rain, its steam.
What freedom the mind grants!
And how you,
dear sleepless knight,
my sleepless nights enchant.
THAT SMILE
If you knew the things I knew,
Oh Beautiful Princess,
you’d wipe that smile
clear off your face.
So tender,
so loving,
so hopeful
and I
keep my secrets buried
to keep you sane.
If you knew the things I knew
Oh Beautiful Princess,
your heart as open
as the Indian Ocean.
Pains in process,
Princess’s incense
Swallowed by the ocean’s dark blue.
Not a shred of malice in your innocent smile,
your naiveté
keeps me on lookout
for you.
Can I undo what I know?
Oh Beautiful Princess!
Unthinkable
all I have seen.
I marvel at your face so yielding,
so guiltless
in a mirror stained with faces uncertain,
unsettled,
unseen.
You make me sigh,
calm and Beautiful Princess,
wandering alone under cities and castles
on a quest for love with a golden crown.
Regal trumpets should sound.
On a mission so sacred,
so blatant,
so tainted,
you mustn’t ever show your head above ground.
For when you know what I know,
Oh Beautiful Princess,
you’ll wipe that smile
clear off your face.
So tender,
so loving,
so hopeful
and I
keep my secrets buried
to keep you sane.
copyright
© Jennifer
Gusack
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