San Miniato, by Barbara Tomash

* I decided this week to feature a poet this week. The poet who wrote this piece was born in Washington D.C. and found her way to San Francisco where she teaches at San Francisco State University. Her poetry has been featured in many literary journals and publications including New American Writing, Colorado Review, and ZYZZYVA.. Here is one of my favorites by her.

San Miniato

what is the difference between a shopping bag
as a twelth-centruy church? what is the difference between
Hank Aaron's rookie card
and apple slices on a plate?
apples and oranges - one of those lies
is the twelth-century church as pretty
as the shopping bag? the bag has
daisies all over - what does the church have?

arches and false openings
which, then, should be the orange?

peel open an orange, tiny crescent-shaped sacs nesting
peel open the church, interlocking diamonds when linked
triangles, squares with triangles, squares
within squares -

I can't get inside -
what's the difference between the mask on the wall and my face?
the mask won't die

our fence tied up by ropes, slipshod -
the church's frescoes peeled almost completely away

sandwiched in plexiglass Hank Aaron's card
still faintly breathing
"here Mr. Aaron, you can have
the spare bedroom!"

the sea, you say, is not different from the grasshopper?
a grasshopper no different from a green
fish?

each - both -

the shopping bag is the orange
of this were a story it
would be the apple

- from The Secret of White