“Visitors to the ROM” by Charlene Jones

The woman, taller by five inches 

a gift of her shoes 

dressed her shapely legs 

this morning in black tights 

her torso in a light cotton dress 

with tiny blue flowers, 

ambiguous above the promise 

of those dark stems. 

She shrugged on a form fitted 

beige jacket, short in the body 

short in the sleeves, 

almost childlike 

but when he, suited 

hair slicked fashionably back 

arrived at their agreed time 

it was the shoes he saw, 

their promise 

of someone unbalanced 

vulnerable to toppling. 

They amble carefully 

not touching each other 

searching Egyptian mummies. 

Charlene Jones’ poetry has most recently appeared on Commuterlit. This, poem, “Visitors to the ROM” was a runner up in the Ontario Poetry Society’s annual Arborealis poetry contest. Charlene also writes for her radio program Off the Top with Whistle Radio, 102.7 fm, aired every second Tuesday from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. (Note: Whistle Radio and CommuterLit have recently teamed up to run a monthly contest. Details here.) You can see Charlene perform her poetry and prose at Portobello Restaurant and Bar the first Saturday every month in Toronto. Finally,  Chalene’s first novel, The Stain was released in September.   

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.