Ariel
for D.F.

denied you last evening
like Peter did Christ

“Do you know her?” I was asked
and I said, “She is pretty,
“But I don’t think we have ever met.”

it was my niece’s husband
who discovered you and me,
linked together, online,
your facebook account and my blog

he called me away from dinner
already I was the last person dining

my siblings and I, gathered
to celebrate my sister Marjorie’s
68th birthday

Ian, who was sharing you with me,
asking if I knew you,
is Marjorie’s son-in-law

for the life of me
I was unable to recall
when or where we might have met

it turned out to be a matter of angle
the fact that I was regarding you
on the screen of the monitor
of Ian’s computer, standing,
looking over his shoulder

came home
after emphatically denying knowing you
and with the mouse in my fist,
I could get a grasp of you again as well

my God, how could I have forgotten
one of my very finest theatre experiences
you in the Tempest, at the Dundas

our encounter after,
out on the terrace of the theatre,
carried away, lifted you off your feet

without a second thought,
gave you Christmas Lights,
Poems to Sit On to Shell Peas
and On The Hinges of this Town
what were then my 3
most recently published books

you knew who I was
while I was there thinking
you must have, that evening,
fallen from heaven

how transported I was
by your performance

saw you on TV recently,
promoting “Crazy Love,”
film you have a part in

is it worthy of Ariel
from the Tempest

you could inspire me
to write a play, to write plays
for you to appear in
the way Pedro Almodovar
is inspired to make films
for Penelope Cruz to appear in

I had not recalled hearing
of your time spent in China,
on the stage there and in England

did not recall hearing either
that you are a lawyer

however could I not
have recognized you last evening
or remembered Dana Ferguson
along with other details discovered
discovered your boyfriend also

I suppose he is made
of some special material
cut from some very fine cloth
to match what you are made of
pretty lady, divine someone

interesting, my thinking you young
when we met, born in 1981
year my younger daughter was born

would you believe, I am in love
with a brilliant girl, a fellow poet,
a few months left before
she concludes high school,
IB, grade 13, she is just 19
born a decade after you were, in 1991


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2011
1:03 a.m. 28.03.11