Helenae Uxori

(Dedicated to the memory of Helen Kemp Frye, classmate and wife of Northrop Frye)

She sat quiet and still

In the last row of the lecture hall

Serious and staid

Blue suit taut

The weight of gravity and years

Her eyes were black and somber

A smoke of smouldering energy

Mouth set grim

No welcoming smile for bustling students

Not for the owl-eyed prophet

Her bookish lover had become

She’d heard that lecture before

About Job and his abiding grief

That relentless testy god

Thoughts drifted and settled on

Last night’s music

How gracefully his fingers still

Caressed the keys

She closed her eyes

No words, no words

Just watery murmur of

Counterpointing melodies

Green and blue abstractions

Shimmering

In violet light

Nella Cotrupi

September 2011

* Published in:  Edward Lemond and Suzanne Cyr, eds. A Giant in Time / Un géant plongé dans le temps: An Anthology of Writings in Honour of  Northrop Frye's 100th Birthday. ellipse mag #87-88. Side by Side Editions  / Éditions Côte-à-Côte, 2012, p.126.