What did she hate more,
That I knew exactly where she was born
Without her telling me?
Or that it meant nothing to me
That she could tie a Mariscino cherry
With her tongue?
Everything I did was wrong:
When she stared at me in meetings
It was because I'd invaded her mind;
When she complained to HR of her abusive boss
It was because my energy caused her to miscarry;
When she was moved far away from my department
She cocooned herself with cardboard sheets
Because she couldn't be too safe.
It all made sense to me, if nobody else, at the time,
For Ezekiel had warned me she was one pissed-off consort
Who I'd left alone with the devic command,
And why I would do that was as much of a mystery
As why she took everything I said as seduction witchery.
Who knows what she really thought
When I shared at Archangel Michael's request
How she was the blessed Queen of Diamonds
Who was gifted in the highest spheres of healing.
She looked at me when I told her this
Like a bureaucrat at the DMV,
And she never would forgive me,
Even after a child gave her a queen of diamonds card
Just to make sure that she would have it,
Even after many years had passed,
And our paths crossed in the pebbles of a parking lot;
I didn't know who it was, but she recognized me
And gave me the final gift
Of an unambiguous glare.
