This morning Carla Z and I were doing a shift at the Village Gallery when two ebullient ladies walked in, looked around, asked if the prices were negotiable, and left. Other people came and went. Then these two ladies walk BACK into the Village Gallery and I say, “You look familiar. Were you here earlier?” and they say stuff like Yes and No and Evil Twins, eventually agreeing that it was indeed they who left and came back. I came back with a statement of gratitude that they were memorable enough that I didn’t just say “Hi, how are you?  Have you ever been to the Gallery before?” and the brunette of them said she was more grateful than I was. The blonde of them began trying on tops designed by Suzen B, founder of the Gallery in its present form.  She’d put one aside and I was intrigued by the color. I asked Carla, “What would you call this color? Taupe? How about Electric Taupe?” Well, that was a hit with Judy, who was the blonde. I then averred that I was a poet and I sometimes Googled phrases I thought I’d coined, invariably finding hundreds of thousands of usages. “Look that one up!” one of them said. “Can’t–I have an ancient flip-phone.”

Anyway, before they left with their merchandise, I’d committed to doing a rhyming poem with the following words and phrases:

heartmother
birthday
electric taupe
Judy
Ilyssa
Suzen’s Tops

I told them to wait a couple of days, then Google “electric taupe” and “birthday” together and they would find the poem I told them I would write.

freak freefolk in free fall

ilyssa of the big smile breezed on in
and in her wake a blonde-contrasting heartmother
whom some called judy modeled clothing. when
a birthday’d make its mention it would start other

celebratory beaming. suzen’s tops
of autumn’s glory–one, electric taupe–
then found their way on judy. bunny hops
made modeling such fun and play and hope.

eliciting ilyssa’s sage assistance
engendered no remonstrance nor remorse;
sedona freefolk vorticize a distance
with totemistic owl and hawk and horse.

the ladies chose, and spent, and left, and we
kept glowing, full of camaraderie.

Judy and Ilyssa, if you remembered, and searched, and found this, bless you. You brightened our day immensely!

Postscript: Two days after I posted this it occurred to me that I had access to an image and text about Suzen and her Tops. Behold:

Here’s a link to the Real Thing: http://www.sedonalocalartists.com/suzen-brackell.html