Published Poems by

Lisa Rigge

 

 

 

INVISIBLE MADE MANIFEST

 

Published in THE ROSE in the WORLD

2015

 

 

    Smiling, the wrinkly old couple hands
us a large, white cloth as white 
as a newborn’s soul.
“Imagine a place you’d like to see,”
they ask, “and we will show you.”
I am excited but skeptical; 
for I don’t want to be made a fool 
by believing in something I cannot see.
However, with no hesitation at all, 
my once extroverted mother
blurts “italiana”, as though she’s
long forgotten the English word.

And so we stare at this cloth as
vivid colors and shapes appear:
blues of oceanic waters,
browns of rigid mountains, and finally
greens and golds of valleys
forming a boot traveling south.
We hold this image in our hands
as we would a sacred shroud -
a sacrament of my mother’s
desire to return home.

As for me, I want to test the waters.
I ask to see the “youth room” - a room I
pass each Sunday morning
on my way to church.
The old couple smiles.
Again we watch the cloth transform,
not into a room as I expected, 
but into purples and golds of a 
magnificent quilt made by someone 
called  “Gate House”. 
We quickly tumble 
to catch its soft 
folds and curves. 
As we gather these colors 
into our arms
I am reminded 
that we are all protected
by a greater age and wisdom
than we can see.