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These Illusions
From his prison in the red fort at Agra,
the Shah Jahan contemplates the peculiar
properties of marble—the Taj Mahal, pinkish
in the east, white in light of prayer, golden in the glint
of sunset. The rich mosaics that adorn the milky stone
in semiprecious jasper, Arabian carnelian—the minarets that muezzin the optical illusion: The way four columns zigzag into six, the way a life is fundamental script.
A narrative in which the snake designs campaigns with mirrors. A paradise of baths with canons. A thousand images that starve the carvers. Stonecutters. A thousand elephants weighed down with brick, hidden in translucence. A dome that’s midwife to eternal.
Hellen’s poetry collections include The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, and Umberto’s Night (Washington Writers’ Publishing House prize, 2012). She has received the Thomas Merton poetry prize and prizes from the H.O.W. Journal and Washington Square Review, as well as individual artist awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. Featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily, her po- ems have appeared in many journals, including American Letters and Com- mentary, Barrow Street, Cimarron Review, Colorado Review, New American Writing, New Letters, and Poetry East.
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KAthleen hellen