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Column 834

They Dance Through Granelli's

Intro by Kwame Dawes
03.15.2021

Pat Emile, who served as Assis­tant Edi­tor to Amer­i­can Life in Poet­ry for over a decade, was described by past edi­tor, Ted Koos­er, as the Jill-Of-All-Trades for this col­umn”. I was for­tu­nate enough to enjoy her sen­si­tive ear for the right­ly tuned poem, and her gen­eros­i­ty as a liai­son with poets, pub­lish­ers and our col­lab­o­rat­ing peri­od­i­cals, as a nec­es­sary com­po­nent of the train­ing for my tenure. It all makes sense, as Pat Emile is, her­self, a poet of fine taste, love­ly insight and, as evi­denced in this poem, They Dance Through Granelli’s”, a poet with a remark­able eye for sen­su­al detail. Thank you, Pat, for all you have done for Amer­i­can Life in Poet­ry, and for your gift of delight­ful verse. Her poem is a fit way to start this excit­ing re-launch of ALiP!

They Dance Through Granelli's

He finds her near the stack
of green plastic baskets waiting to be filled
and circles her waist with his left arm,
entwines her fingers in his, pulls her toward him,
Muzak from the ceiling shedding a flashy Salsa,
and as they begin to move, she lets
her head fall back, fine hair swinging
a beat behind as they follow
their own music—a waltz—past the peaches
bursting with ripeness in their wicker baskets,
the prawns curled into each other
behind cold glass, a woman in a turquoise sari,
her dark eyes averted. They twirl twice
before the imported cheeses, fresh mozzarella
in its milky liquid, goat cheese sent down
from some green mountain, then glide past
ranks of breads, seeds spread across brown crusts,
bottles of red wine nested together on their sides.
He reaches behind her, slides a bouquet
of cut flowers from a galvanized bucket, tosses
a twenty to the teenaged boy leaning
on the wooden counter, and they whirl
out the door, the blue sky a sudden surprise.
 

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2016 by Pat Hemphill Emile, “They Dance Through Granelli's.” Poem reprinted by permission of Pat Hemphill Emile. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.