{"id":1903,"date":"2009-03-22T09:44:01","date_gmt":"2009-03-22T17:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/onelife\/?p=178"},"modified":"2014-10-04T09:46:42","modified_gmt":"2014-10-04T09:46:42","slug":"bushwhacking-with-the-virgin-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=1903","title":{"rendered":"Bushwhacking with the Virgin Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Man, am I ever a case of champagne taste on a beer budget. I adore modern design, came across an ultra cool chair, a Tom Dixon Wingback, a real Jetsons take on the traditional. I tracked down a store in Vancouver, thinking we could go take a test drive until I found out they cost 12,000. Wow! It\u2019s hard to imagine the strata I would reside in to be spending $24,000. on a pair of arm chairs. I doubt that I could do it even if, by some miracle, I found myself in that bracket. White trash roots showing, I\u2019d probably feel guilty, or foolish, or both.<\/p>\n

Seems like everything is coming to a head. Roderick and I are picking up the AURAL Heather pace, rehearsing and working on new material. I\u2019m not sure First Comes Mary<\/em> will be ready for our show at the Media Club on April 1 but we are forging ahead. We are trying very hard as well to get a video of How To Remain<\/em> off the ground. Some friends have volunteered to help with art direction and procuring equipment, as we will be working with a shoestring budget. Our 30-page book proposal for Bushwhacking<\/em> (working title) is nearly completed. I have a meeting with collaborator Tina Schliessler tomorrow. We have leads from agent and writer friends; will strategize, decide which publishers to send it to. I must get the final draft for my novel, The Town Slut\u2019s Daughter<\/em> finished, nail down dates for a writing retreat next month in order to meet the Mother Tongue BC Novel deadline and prepare for the Al Purdy A-Frame Trust fundraiser we\u2019re hosting. We have several other AURAL Heather shows coming up as well, not to mention back-to-school, RDI intervention and therapy, spring cleaning. Whew. I am going to go take the rest of the (Sun)day off and try not to think about any of this.<\/p>\n

Our AURAL Heather spoken word song is adapted from this poem from Window Seat<\/em>:<\/p>\n

First Comes Mary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Enchanted morning swim, matrix of turquoise
\nlagoon. Silver palometas, yellow damselfish
\ncaress my legs. Casa Ocio walls whitewashed
\nin cactus milk. Coconuts on the lawn.
\nPalm fronds bowing, rippling like sea anemones.
\nHeavy mahogany Hemingway digs.
\nGecko chirps from behind a gilt frame.
\nCool terrazzo marble pulls sand from toes.
\nDouble rain showerhead. Full throttle bottle bar
\nunder a palapa. I ponder the power
\nof local masonry to withstand hurricanes,
\nwhy it seems odd to name them after men.<\/p>\n

Who are you going to meet at a resort?
\nMail carriers from St. Catharines. Chiropractors
\nfrom Winnipeg. Programmed amusements for fraught
\ntourists wary of beggars. Cockatiels. Street vendors.
\nThey recoil at pulque, mescal, even tequila,
\nunless it\u2019s frozen, goes down like a Slurpee.
\nThey tap into barrels of Corona or deposit derri\u00e8res
\nunder cabanas to read the latest Grisham.<\/p>\n

Beneath an arbor of pink bougainvillea
\nsit my dubious nephew, delicate girlfriend,
\ndoubts sinking slowly into the deep
\npurple cushions. We are going to town. To Playa.
\nSoft brown doves adorn neon.
\nTurtles bask on green tile mosaic. Red house
\nhosts a party tableau of orange Fanta, blue corn
\nflowers, flags of paper lace, chocolate pan de huevos.
\nWe smell agave, chili, vanilla, coriander and anise,
\nhear mariachis blaze a mighty La Bamba. Gobble
\npumpkin tamales, snow-white beach cooling our heels.
\nMongrels expire at the feet of professional urchins
\nsoliciting pesos. I will not cry, pick a white handkerchief
\nfestooned with poinsettias embroidered by his mother.
\nNo, I can\u2019t buy them all. Though downcast he will not cry.
\nOur Lady of Guadalupe provides. Protects.<\/p>\n

Christmastime but it\u2019s Mary I see. Everywhere. To the faithful
\nthe forever virgin manifests in reefs, rays and schools
\nof gobies and fairy basslet. In the crystalline water
\nof a cenote near Merida. In the mynah\u2019s cry.
\nThey live in Mother Mary\u2019s shadow, warm as her embrace.
\nQueen of the Americas imperial as the iguana
\ngnawing hibiscus, sunning atop Tulum\u2019s serpentine stairways.
\nShe is wing carved into rock, three pelicans soaring above.<\/p>\n

Even Mary, standing on the moon, presiding over the jungle
\nin a cloak of stars, could not stop the calendar,
\nmarauding anthropologists or games to the death.
\nOn every altar she towers over the crucifix, candles,
\niron crosses, golden grapes. She is under their skin,
\nher miraculous portrait inked onto their muscles.
\nHammered in copper, in tin. On murals.
\nSanta Maria assures and comforts all
\nher Mexican children. Heals. Entirely and ever
\nVirgin Mary is the horizon, sea and sky colliding
\nin azure, cobalt blues. Sacred to all. Taxi drivers.
\nMarimba players. Deejays and charros. She waves
\nfrom the cruise ships, watches over fire dancing,
\nblesses the portrait of two young lovers lost
\nin a car crash. Her people feel the harbour of her arms
\naround them. Her mercy. Infinite. Close.
\nFirst comes Mary. Holy Mary. Mother of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Man, am I ever a case of champagne taste on a beer budget. I adore modern design, came across an ultra cool chair, a Tom Dixon Wingback, a real Jetsons take on the traditional. I tracked down a store in Vancouver, thinking we could go take a test drive until I found out they cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,12],"tags":[38,149,295,357],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}