Dip the fabric in a bath
of onion skins, like she did.
Let the dye cling
like her ghost clings to me
and to her old furniture,
which has become mine,
the headboard shaky
as names being called,
my name over and over.
I cannot answer to it.
Dip the fabric in a bath
of onion skins.
I cannot forget her ghost
in front of the mirror.
I realize her face
is framed by my hair.
She wanders the maze
of armchairs. I fold my body
over hers on one of the cushions.
She clings to me.
There is the end table that was carried
with her from the farm
where they first settled.
Then she opened the window
for the first calm in a long time.
She felt the discomfort
of knowing her family was not part
of her peace. This scared her
and so did the way
their ghosts cling.
I work with art in reaction to poetry. I find textiles work best since they are malleable and react to embroidery, dye, and wax. This helps me focus my poetry. Sometimes I rework the poetry after the textile is completed to create a stronger connection. -Olena Jennings
The idea begins here with collecting onion skins for about a year. They crackle and crunch against each other as thin as a spirit.
The title of the poem “Historical Arrangement” is about the ghost who is a deceased family member, and the voice in the poem is becoming one with history. What is remarkable is that the voice has her furniture and is taking on her features.
The art, a woman’s shirt, is part of the poem because this family member is dyeing with onion skins. The voice in the poem is repeating her acts. My ancestor used onion skins to dye eggs, but I carried the process into my present by dyeing fabric.
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Olena Jennings is a New York City based writer and translator. She is the author of the poetry collection The Age of Secrets (Lost Horse Press, 2022) and the novel Temporary Shelter (Cervena Barva Press, 2021). Olena Jennings has been a translator or co-translator of collections by Ukrainian poets Iryna Shuvalova, Kateryna Kalytko, Vasyl Makhno, and Yuliya Musakovska, among others. She also founded and curates the Poets of Queens reading series and press.
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