Artifacts

Katherine McLeod Searle

Broken beads
Tumbled together
Democratically arranged
Serious pieces
Tarnished but proud
Hooked to unstrung pearls
Nestled against rubies
A dress-up smile
in a velvet box
Loose iridescent globes
Of oil-spill blue-green crystal
Punctuated by prismatic
Jet lavalieres
Once suspended
On black ribbon
Circling swan neck

The shape of your face
Clearer now
Than the feel of cold
Glass
Smooth in hand.

Katherine McLeod Searle