Persephone’s Copy of Architectural Digest

The space is open, rich with accents.
Arabesques adorn the ceilings.
Furniture from Shaker farms,
long since reclaimed,
 
sits on carpets woven by
small Tajik hands about two hundred
years ago — wool monuments
to style and good taste.
 
The accent paintings are eclectic.
One, not as conceptual,
romantic landscape
looks out on the mountains
 
of Tajikistan, where spirits are
the weavers of bright ikat throws,
where monuments to Lenin stand
with arms outstretched,
 
or did, not many years ago
(like Zarathustra, years before).
A Shaker table’s carpentry
once praised the God of Abraham;
 
its style finds clean echoes
in a Danish Modern lounging chair
and compliments an ikebana's
understated grace.
 
The Shakers of America
grew ancient Tajik strains of wheat
that circled silken roads to feed
the subjects of Persephone —
 
and on each page the Digest proves
that antique style, salt, and thread
of Persian sweat and God’s old lands
will wake those dead again.

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