My work-in-progress, currently called Looking Glass Girl, is a YA verse-novel about a young artist, Alice, who time-travels from the Seattle Art Museum to 19th century France hoping to break a family curse.
Sphinx
Awareness comes slowly:
the soft darkness,
the quilt on the bed, the stalking
shapes of furniture. My eyes
tunnel down to a pinprick of light.
Alice is awakened in the middle of the night
First Impression
No guards.
How can there be no guards?
But the gallery—at least this part of it—
Is empty.
The camera eye points slightly to the left.
I inch in, waiting for it to swing in my direction.
One minute.
Three minutes.
Five.
Alice sneaks into an exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, and has a strange encounter
Haunted
Regardless of my mood,
I really do have to face Napoleon III,
who lost the Franco Prussian War to hemorrhoids
and overconfidence.
Alice sees someone in her room
Gift
From the hidden space where Ty and I still stand,
we can see Jason limping, head-down, to the escalator.
“You okay?” Ty hands me my hat.
“Thanks, I…was handling him.”
“I know you were,” says Ty.
“I just wanted to make sure we didn’t have a homicide back here.
Even off the clock, I feel a certain responsibility.”
He says it deadpan and it makes me feel kind of badass.
Alice and Ty come to an understanding
Walls
Dad swings around and barrels into the next gallery,
followed by three or four security guards,
While I stand stupidly, looking after him.
After her father threatens suicide, Alice makes a snap decision
Eating Oysters with Manet
I know it is Manet the instant I see him.
The rain has plastered auburn curls against his forehead.
His beard drips.
I shove the charcoal pencil under a napkin
as a waiter in a flat, brimmed cap glides over to my table.
“Mademoiselle?” The waiter looks questioningly at the empty seat.
Alice meets an ancestor