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.