by Rajesh C. Oza
In memory of Louise Glück, 1943-2023, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature
When Louise was born,
The Dodgers were in Brooklyn.
Before Jackie, a name for the ages,
There were other colorful monikers:
Arky, Augie, and Billy;
Dixie, Mickey, and Frenchy.
This was more than a decade before
Campy, Jackie, Pee Wee, and Sandy
Won the World Series.
This was decades before
Clayton’s Los Azure dreams
Died with Louise’s laments into oblivion,
A pain salved with rebirth in Spring:
“You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:
from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea water.”
(Referencing Glück’s “Wild Iris”)