A Sunlit Green Window

An ethnographer reports

A member of a small, Greek

Religious minority

Telling him how ritual

Practice of her faith saved her

From her mental suffering

When she was a young woman

Who was depressed and anxious

And refused to leave the house—

I was sitting in a chair,

Just staring at the window

For two years. Something in you

Jumps. You know it’s not the right

Reaction. The woman gave

That information to show

How wretched she was back then,

And her interlocutor,

Professor Ethnographer,

Has written her account up

As part of his argument

For the salvific value

Of religious ritual

Across the diversity

Of human cultures. But you,

Your thoughts, your memories, lock

On that image of sitting

Two years beside a window,

Which you imagine sunlit,

At that instant, the outside

View out of sight, an image,

For you, of tranquility,

Of peace, of what you would do,

If you could, if life let you,

Knowing something’s wrong with you,

With what you want from your world.

Two years! And you feel envy.