“Ode to Enchantment” – a poem by Marianne Peel

August 19th, 2026

Les Biches (The Does) by Marie Laurencin (France), 1923

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Ode to Enchantment

I refuse to paint
anesthetized still lifes
that reek of decaying fish,
onions gone sour,
and beer falling flat.
Give me instead
wine chalices with fragile stems,
pomegranates pried open
with ravenous fingers.
Offer me apricots from Mallorca,
fire goblets of orange light
between our lips.
Let us arrive at the table
layered in diaphanous gowns.
Yours off your shoulder.
Mine hitched up to the curve
of my hip.
Let us take turns
plucking melodies.
You from your guitar,
dusted from the attic
and craving the strum of your fingers.
I will raise the lid of the piano,
vibrate the strings
with my tongue,
and hold you spell-bound
in my unraveling sonata.

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After having taught middle and high school English for 32 years, Marianne Peel is now nurturing her own creative spirit. She has spent three summers in Guizhou Province, teaching best practices to teachers in China. She received Fulbright-Hays Awards to Nepal (2003) and Turkey (2009). She participated in Marge Piercy’s Juried Intensive Poetry Workshop (2016), and her poetry appears in Muddy River Poetry Review, Belle Reve Literary Journal, Jelly Bucket Journal, among others. She is also a veteran musician, playing flute/sax and singing in various orchestras, bands, choirs, and jazz bands her whole life. She has published three full length poetry collections; No Distance Between Us, and Singing is Praying Twice are from Shadelandhouse Modern Press, and her latest collection, Untamed Arabesque, is from Act of Power Press