At The Game

At The Game by Heather L. Kelly. 

Poem written in 2017. Books made in 2019 and 2020.

Artist book / book art. 

Covers: printed card 

Binding: embroidery thread 

Interior: copy paper

Content: poem by Heather L. Kelly 

AT THE GAME

After the 3rd inning home run
a dragonfly helicoptered in and
hovered above the field
 
suspended in searing heat over
popcorn, beer, and field boards
advertising bobbleheads and “lets go” cheers
 
barely visible against stadium scaffolding
behind home plate he watched
the batters from a safe distance.
 
An Indigenous woman from Manitoba
years ago told me dragonflies
symbolize all things are possible.
 
The Rainbow Woman she was called,
one of the last artisans of birch bark biting -
she had been a dental hygienist and a welder
before biting designs into the skin of trees.
 
To wear the silver-framed bark bitten dragonfly
she gave me, I slip the buckskin string
over my head and, for the first time,
I think of her teeth.