June 2021
Bio Note: June always ignites my relationship with the earth, especially the time spent nurturing my petite urban garden. This month also reminds me of weddings and the necessary tending required in matters of the heart and soul, whether they be with a partner, yourself, or the Divine. Mystic, poet, author and educator, my prose and poetry have found a home in The New York Times, an Off-Broadway show, in print and on radio.
A Meditation on One
One is not lonely; it is the beginning and always the end. One can meet another and ripen into two who can beget three or four, or not... They can remain two or perchance part, and become one again, but once one knows the feeling of two, its heart invariably yearns for more. This remembering sets a longing afire; even God willed to see God, and said “Let there be Light.”
Originally published in Chronogram
Frogs’ Legs in Curaҫao
On our honeymoon my husband ordered frog’s legs. He wanted me to taste them; I refused. He pressed them on me again; I couldn’t. “I don’t know why you won’t,” he said, biting into the smooth, vulnerable sinew. “They’re delicious. Try.” We argued, laughed, he urged again, lifting a fleshy chunk toward my mouth. It glistened there in the moonlit Curaҫao night, like a frog should, I thought. Still, not wanting to spoil his fun, I smiled and opened my mouth and swallowed. “There, you see, just like chicken.” “Yes,” I lied. “It is.”
Originally published in Of Frogs & Toads (Ione Press)
©2021 Arlene Gay Levine
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