Art: Light touches paper #120 by Ken CollinsHer dress once pink
A harrier hawk on a snow-mounded fence
a murder of crows on the gray wind
shocks of yellow winter wheat on the periphery
the field bleeding into the horizon
I can’t go on
she said surrounded by absence
the air a hole consuming sound
our nearest neighbors only dust plumes conversing
You work the land
feel the soil warm your soles
blacken your fingers coiling around roots
to coax growth out of riven sod
The breeze swirls around you in embrace
she said I’m in your grandpa’s house
built by prior generations
of seekers who left leaving motes
Wearing a dress once pink
now the color of leeched corpuscles
my palms etched like drought-baked clay
I’m growing emptiness
The jet flying 50,000 feet above
our farmstead she said sees
the curvature of the earth obscured by the windbreak
casting shadows through my window
About the author:
Steve Gerson, an emeritus English professor, writes poetry about life's dissonance and dynamism. He's proud to have published in Panoplyzine (winning an Editor's Choice award), The Hungry Chimera, Toe Good, The Write Launch, Ink & Voices, and Coffin Bell.
Art: Light touches paper #120 by Ken Collins
In the artist's words:
Professional photographer and artist in NYC. Work has been published in numerous magazines including; American Theater, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Artnews, Inc, Newsweek, Orion, Lenswork, etc. Umbrage Books published Ken’s award winning portrait series of American Playwrights titled In Their Company, Portraits of American Playwrights. Ken has had a number of solo and group exhibitions and his work is included in private and public collections. Ken teaches at the International Center of Photography.
