Marsha L. Mentzer - Before Clocks Melt (with "Figure at a Window" by Salvador Dali)

Brushed in lavenders and white,
Ana Maria leans on the casement sill,
translucent blue curtains as frame
for the dark curls drawn back loosely,
crossed arms and elbows bearing her weight.
She’s just come to catch the afternoon
sea breeze, dishtowel rumpled beside her,
forgotten once her thoughts
ripple, skimming the bay’s surface.
How often has she etched the future
on the distant gray slate,
so that now her brother knows
by heart the tilt of her head,
the lift of her heel from the floor,
shoe tip barely touching the planks,
as if the beauty of Cadaqués
cannot be enough for her.









Marsha Mentzer lives in Carlisle, PA and taught English for thirty-five years at Carlisle High School. Her poetry has been published in Main Channel Voices, Four and Twenty, Ruminate, Relief, Tipton Poetry Journal, Caesura, Hospital Drive, Peeks and Valleys, The Village Pariah, Horticulture, Broken Circles, and Seeding the Snow.