Rosabelle, believe by Kate Garrett

for Harry & Bess Houdini

On a day of no importance: dark of winter, far from seances 
and anniversaries, at last he gave her message through a man 
who wouldn’t take a reward: answer, tell, pray-answer, look, 
tell, answer-answer, tell // a code tapped out in syllables, letters
across the stage for his encore performed between there and here 
– b e l i e v e – she was waiting to accept, to say her part // one 
last chance to forgive the waking walking world for everything 
it stripped from him, the world in which he must have turned 
to smoke, escaping cuffs and cells and chains // learn to fly, 
Houdini—they sit in circles, holding hands, invoking your name.

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Kate Garrett is the editor of Picaroon Poetry, Three Drops from a Cauldron, and Bonnie’s Crew. Her own work is widely published, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and longlisted for a Saboteur Award. Her latest pamphlet Land and Sea and Turning was published by CWP Collective Press in August 2018. Kate lives in Sheffield, UK with her husband, five children, and a sleepy cat.