This is the opening poem in Mute Swan, Poems for Maria Queen of the World, Lesley-Anne’s first collection of poetry, published by The St. Thomas Poetry Series (Toronto, 2021). The poem is written from the perspective of a young child who encounters the divine in the garden, a perfectly natural place to meet.
Testimony One: On Account of a Ripe Brandywine Tomato
1. There is no angel.
2. There are cicadas clicking like a vinyl record riding one relentless everlasting note. There is occasional lowing—dairy cows content with alfalfa beyond the electric fence. There is my cotton sundress. And my dusty feet. There are damp curls sticking to my sunburned neck.
3. When I am four. When I am electric—the white heat of want.
4. There is my grandfather’s garden.
5. There is a blood-red globe larger than a grapefruit. There is a scent—green, sharp, hard to wash off. There is beauty. When I see. When I reach out and take it into myself as though it is the only answer I will ever need.
6. There is red. There is red blood like wine. There is thin skin. And sharp teeth. There is puncture, bite, and softening of jaw and lips. There is the making way for sun warmed flesh. There is the haloed aroma and the tender glabrous leaf. There is swallow, saliva, and licking lips, there is abundance and ambrosia that cannot be contained, there is spilling, and washing, and dripping, and there is wanting more.
7. There is no shame.
Lesley-Anne Evans 