Wiseman, Sarah P.

English

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Thoughts On Immiscibility

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© Providence College  The author(s) permits users to copy, distribute, display, and perform this work under the following conditions: (1) the original author(s) must be given proper attribution; (2) this work may not be used for commercial purposes; (3) the users may not alter, transform, or build upon this work; (4) users must make the license terms of this work clearly known for any reuse or distribution of this work. Upon request, as holder of this work’s copyright, the author(s) may waive any or all of these conditions.  The Prose Poem: An International Journal is produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) for the Providence College Digital Commons. http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/prosepoems/ THE PROSE POEM: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL  Volume 5 | 1996 Thoughts On Immiscibility Sarah P. Wiseman  Sarah P. Wiseman THOUGHTS ON IMMISCIBILITY I never took chemistry but I am aware that certain substances are im-miscible. Oil and water, for example, and yet I consider that it is from a carefully structured combination of these elements that the printed word evolves, like a harvest of barley, like a birthing...of a kind. I have heard that citrus and lactic products are immiscible. But what can one say of a breakfast where a small glass of flecked orange juice is placed beside a cup of coffee, topped with a ruffle of milk? I ques-tion the nature of immiscibility. And yet I confess that, in the case of people, there can be a chemical element in the air of whatever it is that causes rejection. I have ob-served two people in a room, knitted evenly together. The purl and the plain of them causing a scarf, the scarf of them causing a warmth, the warmth of them causing a peace. But when a third person enters the room a knitting needle drops to the floor and the stitches unfurl. Hurt, like a substance that will not infuse, zig zags about the space in taut, invisible wires. My daughter is all blue, a primary color, noble, bold, whole. She is bluer than all violets or a hot sea dazed by the sun. And I am, perhaps, yellow. It would appear that we could both exist, could in fact together form some several shades of green. Or remain by choice the colors we are, one complementing the other.....like wind in rushes or sky where it leans down to water. But my beloved child appears to think we are immiscible. She curdles, rejects, retreats from my essence. Can it be she imagines I would diminish her own? Can it be she believes I would take away one drop of her blue? 

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Thoughts On Immiscibility

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