(PROSE POEM)
IRIS TREE CHOOSES A ROLE, 1913
MARK LUEBBERS & BENJAMIN GOLUBOFF
IRIS TREE CHOOSES A ROLE, 1913
MARK LUEBBERS & BENJAMIN GOLUBOFF
W.S. Gilbert was a fixture at Father’s table, where he made, some whispered, advances to Mother that were as cleverly expressed as they were improper in design. Ellen Terry presided at the Christmas theatricals Father produced for the children each winter, her beauty refined and enlarged in old age. And Father was knighted in 1909 during the run of Twelfth Night at His Majesty’s. Playing Malvolio, he spoke of how greatness comes, and the people rose and silenced him with their applause.
The question for a child growing up in these theaters was, always and emphatically, whom to be, and young Iris addressed herself to this question with deep misgivings, as it seemed that all of the roles had been previously assigned. So, at age 16, in a second-class coach from Wolverhampton, Iris cut off nine inches of her hair (her luminous, red-gold, Pre-Raphaelite hair) and left it, a strange bouquet, on her seat when she emerged at Paddington Station.
The question for a child growing up in these theaters was, always and emphatically, whom to be, and young Iris addressed herself to this question with deep misgivings, as it seemed that all of the roles had been previously assigned. So, at age 16, in a second-class coach from Wolverhampton, Iris cut off nine inches of her hair (her luminous, red-gold, Pre-Raphaelite hair) and left it, a strange bouquet, on her seat when she emerged at Paddington Station.
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Mark Luebbers teaches English at Cincinnati Country Day School, Benjamin Goluboff at Lake Forest College. Sometimes they write poems together. Three of Mark and Ben’s poems about jazz pianist Bill Evans will appear this year in They Said: A Multigenre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing from Black Lawrence Press. They've collaborated on another Iris Tree poem which you can find here.