when breath itself struggles
to claw a path to the chest
when breath rips cords with its nails
searing hungry lava trails
leaving an ashen shell that caves
in despondency’s conquest
head so leaden, let us sit
and lean against
and find hope against all odds
for now let us curl
into a ball
a roll and knead
let this mere slip in fate
be cast out in green
and enduring spell – to recoil
in pain until we break
Saffron – 3rd April 2021
*See vase of same name by Artus Van Briggle
Napowrimo Prompt Early Bird:
Today, we’d like to challenge you to spend a few minutes looking for a piece of art that interests you in the online galleries of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After you’ve selected your piece, study the photographs and the accompanying text. And then – write a poem! Maybe about who you imagine making the piece, or using it. Or how it wound up in the museum? Or even the life of the person who wrote the text about the piece – perhaps the Met has a windowless basement full of graduate students churning out artwork descriptions – who knows?