For Lenore Kandel, Beat Generation feminist poet
I.
The red rue is calling!
It’s Kupala Midsummer Night!
The twilight sky teems
with fuchsia flames.
I weave
my hair in long braids,
ready my wreath
to dance upon the river.
O, High Priestess of Love!
Honey once flowed
from your lips.
Lavender meadows blossomed
beneath your feet.
Your meteor of light
extinguished mournfully.
It’s you I’ve been seeking!
II.
I look for you
in the sugar maples
of Pennsylvania –
Baba’s baykas
a one-room schoolhouse
your cradle
words burning
eyelids
already putting pen
to paper
I look for you
on the park
benches of Union Square
the New School
what a snooze
full ride
does not matter
the road calls to you
must feed
the triplet chapbooks
you just birthed 4
I look for you
in the East-West House of Haight-Ashbury
threading bead curtains
shaking Aphrodite hips
Kerouac perplexed
you read
the Lankavatara Sutras
for breakfast
wearing only purple
panties
I look for you
ascending City Lights
The Love Book
a new scripture
the Apostle of the Sacred Fuck
never compromising
poetry
centering
women as desirous creatures
I look for you
inciting Reagan’s wrath
at the San Francisco courthouse
defending
the right to write
freely
the right to love
loudly
tangerine turtleneck sweater
your armor
decrying war
bombs
hate
the real obscenities
I look for you
in the polo fields
of Golden Gate Park
Ginsberg, Snyder, McClure, Ferlinghetti
thundering at the Human Be-In
the only woman poet on stage was you
serenading crowd
20,000 strong
your 35th birthday present 5
I look for you
driving a pick-up truck
making
deliveries of sustenance
member of the Diggers
embracing the radical
notion
no body should go hungry
I look for you
in the motorcycle crash
shattering your spine
ceaseless pain
retreating
in solitude
to writing
your faithful friend
carcinoma
overtaking your lungs
spirit still buoyant
until the last breath
III.
Lenore, my Capricorn twin –
you bore
no children.
I claim you
as my mother.
St. John’s fire
burns bright.
Let’s bathe
in song tonight!
***
Vera Sirota is the proud granddaughter of Ukrainian immigrants. Vera serves as a mentor for Girls Write Now, a creative writing organization for high school girls and gender-expansive youth in NYC. Vera’s poems have been featured in the Poetry Distillery, Stories by Girls Write Now, Dark Onus Lit, Ukrainian American Poets Respond, Music of Hope: a benefit concert in support of Ukraine, and the “SHATTERED: SYMBOLIC GESTURE” exhibition. Vera is a 2022 Martha Award Finalist for the David Wade Hogue Scholarship. She is a co-founder of the West of Willow poetry and music collective in Hoboken, New Jersey. She previously served as a public school teacher in Elmhurst, Queens.
Armstrong Literary 