The morning is full of storm
in the heart of summer.
– Pablo Neruda
morning breaks & wildflowers – butterfly weed
& goldenrod & paintbrush & bloodroot – rejoice
as though forever is evanescence/ just a tug
a pull away our day comes
muscular beside such pinkish splendor: bystanders
our young unblemished
backsides/ a blush tight thigh carrying
all the markings of time precedently/ same
as Mr. Collier’s letter rack illusions & preoccupations
portraiture in metaphoric
vanitas – collected notepads defunct almanacs
a dangling pocket watch given me years
ago by your father – as overcast memento
mori in surfaces thick to hand & not quite
so glossy framed: a skeleton key/ a tortoise shell
comb – not real things of course but imitations
– oil on canvas renderings the why of what’s
so easily made out in life
I never quite
grasped
* touch *stroke *smooth *
as illusion: what I arrived thinking & left
regretting but returning to my point/ to howl
chill/ ricochet/ hailstones of a prairie springtime
pummeling my aluminum camper roof at the KOA waking
well beyond summer in another
kind of bruising/ shaking all our own
banging back & forth in the thick
between empathy & insight
Mara Adamitz Scrupe is a visual artist, filmmaker, and writer. She has authored seven award-winning poetry collections, her work has been published in international literary journals, and she has won or been shortlisted for many visual art and literary prizes, fellowships, and awards.
wonderful piece