Poetry |

“The Enchanted Bells”

The Enchanted Bells

 

He bought them at the flea market,

While she sifted through the brocante

For treasures to bring back on the plane

And post on her home page. He noticed

Four bells made of brass without a score

Of provenance or country of origin

(She would later say India when he said Spain)

Etched upon their lips

When he picked them up

Off the vendor’s table. Four bells

Arranged separately, perhaps

Haphazardly, amid keys and hand tools,

Pocketknives, medallions, and doorknobs.

All things old and metal, pulled from boxes

Stacked beside a white panel truck.

Four bells with tags of different prices

Dangling from their stems. Four bells

Like Bosc pears fat around their bottoms

Bought for a price he knew

The vendor would accept

“For all,” he said, for the bells of brass

So cheap he did not even ring them,

Three of which belonged as a set,

The fourth, the smallest, alike in shape,

And similar in design but not pattern.

Four bells, the vendor wrapped in newspaper

And wiped the smudges of ink on her apron.

“My woman became lost,” he practiced

Walking back and forth among the tables,

Until he saw her with her arms full of bracelets

And her neck adorned with vintage chains.

She was cross with him for having left

Her without a translator for her goods.

Back in the hotel while she bathed,

He tested the timbre of the bells

The vendor had wrapped for him.

The headlines were no better

Than the ones at home. Things just looked

Better for him in another language.

Then he tried the bells, starting large

To small, then back again.

Such bright notes, issuing

Like songbirds from their throats.

He found when he chimed them,

They pealed even rounder, and like

A lookout man he was tempted

To cry out the time in four directions.

When she stepped out of the bathroom,

He thought she was going to tell him

Off again. Instead she dropped

Her towel and kissed him with her tongue.

 

Contributor
Stuart Dischell

Stuart Dischell is the author of six books of poetry, including the forthcoming The Lookout Man (March 2022) from the Phoenix Poets Series of the University of Chicago Press. Several of his titles are available from Carnegie-Mellon, Chicago, and Penguin. [Photo credit: Cyril Caine]

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