9.
United States, three years later.
Denali, "First Female Ascent."
Subzero gust.
Summit.
She's famished.
But ecstasy, according to Hollywood,
sells, so the film crews caught it--
what a climax!
Barbara Washburn, in black and white--
a broad on top of the world.
She waves.
Gives the word, and Brad lowers her
over the peak, cord-strung to his public summit,
eclipsed for a blessed minute from the cameras above.
Below-- cirrus.
Ice-lacing air.
This shot is all for her, and it's virga to boot--
O, to pee like a bird!
Privacy widening, she lingers between God and the tundra
floor, finding the border between nadir and zenith,
a range's peaks and valleys in far air immersed,
a feverish kite, a pale jet stream, a shivering.
Odd, hiding inside the world's wide panorama,
to be the first woman to epistle this sky, I am here.
10.
411 years earlier, Spain.
"Katharine of Aragon, Divorced."
I am the first.
I am here.
Thou art alone.
O Griffith, I'm sick to death.
My legs bow to the Earth.
Go thy ways, Kate.
Nothing but death shall divorce my dignities.
The queen of earthly queens.
His promises were, as he was then, mighty.
We are a queen--
Good lady, make yourself mirth--
or long have dreamed so, we are the daughter of a king,
certain.
Would I have never trod this English earth.
I can no more.
Good Griffith, cause the musicians
to play me that sad note.
Be sad as we would make ye.
Men's evil matters live in brass--
The times and titles are altered strangely with me--
their virtues we write in water.
Be well contented to make your house our tower.
My drops of tears I'll turn to sparks of fire.
411 years later.
11, Argentina.
Buenos Aires, "Eva Proposes."
Your drops of tears I'll turn to sparks of fire--
dry your eyes.
What king begs for mercy from his generals?
A messy coup this was, indeed.
Have a gin.
I tire of quiet tidying.
All people require is some small controversy, some token.
Do me this courtesy.
In fencing, you aim for the heart.
Desire what your people desire--
shirtless in chivalry-- they pull weeds, count beads,
sin the better to see their neighbor's sin.
Demand a rematch.
Have another.
Stand.
Your practice is sufficient-- better on your knee.
Fall's upon us, but spring is coming.
Lie to me.