Kiss of Victory

Angels angels, but that's what the girl's drawn to; and why should I avoid a four-year-old's cliché? Standing under the marble sculpture, I hoist her, and we inspect the wings at the core of the angel's back, between the shoulder blades or a bit lower, from a central stump of muscle and quill. The sculpture is kinetic, and I sense a wing erupt behind me like a phantom limb (remembering my own cliché, at 16, the angel sitting atop the library stacks and the city bridge, in “Wings of Desire”). If I came of age under frond of angel wing, so might she, I suppose:  mythmakers. One evening, at bedtime, she says she flies with her sister in the night, says her sister is dead, and that's when the plumes near my spine really start to prickle, because she has never been told of her sister. She cries, and says she is sad because she hasn't thought about her sister in a long time. I can see that it's make-believe, but I'm finding it strange that she's voicing my thoughts. I had just then felt sad for the very same reason—when she had her head on my chest and we discussed the significance of heartbeats. At the museum, I ask about her angel. Do you want to see it up close? Do you want me to lift you? The sculpture is one thing, the angel another, and the way I lift you, your small arms and hands at my neck, the way we see art together, and make our rooms from the galleries. (Some angels overhear the private thoughts of others.) (Hear, I haven't grieved in so long.) We look at the carved feathers and the strong wings, stretching up and over the fallen soldier, about to alight. I ask her: is that what your angel is like?

Kiss of Victory
Sir Alfred Gilbert, 1878–1881
Marble, wooden base
89 1/2 in. (227.33 cm)

a Roman legionary fallen in battle and embraced at the moment of death

Kelly Hansen Maher is a writer of poetry, plays, and hybrid prose. Also an attorney, Kelly is interested in law and literature scholarship, and is currently researching an article on the evidentiary value of poetry. She lives in Northeast Minneapolis with her husband, Jason Maher, and her daughter, Freya Maher.