Tea Time with Rivqah and Teddy
by Noel Joshua Hadley
ANY minute now,
my three-year-old daughter
will announce from her end of the hallway,
“Daddy, TEA TIME!”
And I am telling you now,
I will drop what I am doing, stopping everything
the very moment she calls my name in order to make it happen,
leaving my work unfinished if need be.
The tasty donut and the pastries
which she typically offers are fabrics of felt,
and the fruit salad is plastic.
The tea cup is emptied of everything
but the conversation which is certain to fill it.
It is a mandala, I will remind her, measured only
by the limitations we bring.
Ahhhh, I am likely to exhale after my first sip,
noting my entry into a macrocosm within a microcosm
and the delightful labyrinth of spiritual expansion
which is certain to await us.
It tastes like a rose window, I will further explain,
adding, “Fill me up another cup of that gothic architecture.”
Captain Buttons and Teddy are expected to attend.
After a measure of small talk, I am thinking of inquiring
about their church denomination.
What is their preferred model of the Trinity?
Are they modelists or do they lean in favor of the Arian heresy,
and if so, what do they make of the Catholic propaganda
aimed against the Waldensians
and the Cathars?
If that does not interest the table panel
then I will most certainly serenade them with a story
regarding Rivqah’s delivery from the womb of her earthly Mother
into the womb of Mother Earth.
Holding a pre-existent daughter in my arms
on the day of her birth, a burning gnosis washed over me.
I looked to my wife, still recovering from delivery,
and offered a confession.
A Love, unknowable and unwritten underneath the firmament
since primordial pre-Adamic times, has offered me
a noted exception to the rule—Experience.
In vulgar terms I told her,
There is another woman in my life now.
Captain Buttons is a neophyte in all of this,
uncharacterized by the anticipated stains
which will color his amigurumi crochetwork,
but Teddy was there for it.
On his part, Teddy witnessed Rivqah slip into the birthing pool.
He can give personal testimony to the umbilical cord
uncoiling behind her if it comes down to it,
but I am still uncertain if we agree
on the origin of the sexes.
One derives from the earth,
the other from heaven.
I am even prepared to get into a theological debate if need be.
After our third cup of tea I may feel inclined
to challenge Captain Buttons and Teddy’s
knowledge of the Divine.
The purpose of Man is to inspire woman
to reach down from heaven and become Woman,
whereas Woman is intended to inspire man
to reach heavenward and become Man.