Composition VII, Kandinsky, 1913, by Cassy Dorff

Composition Vll, by Wassily Kandinsky (Russia) 1913

Composition VII, Kandinsky, 1913
 
I had my first art crush at 12 years old
A volunteer, a mom maybe, brought “fine art”
 
to our public school, big floating canvases
against the blackboard during homeroom
 
and she talked and talked. I have no
idea what she said but I remember how
 
she came and flashed fields of color
inside a small morning of all gray walls,
 
gray carpet, gray lockers, they might as well make the grass 
gray too but at least the track outside was red.
 
Staring, I felt an opening,
like what 12-year-old me
 
imagined it was to be high enough
to spot insight from spiderly marks
 
and wobbly angles. A space with no more rules
no more rules inside a space where spontaneity flew
 
unbridled, where lines improvised inside of themselves 
until they flushed a new silhouette. Catholic and young, 
 
I wanted to be inside of it. To curl up
and bounce my limbs against laughing triangles.

Cassy Dorff​

Cassy Dorff’s poetry is published at Terrain.org, Rust + Moth, Black Bough Poetry, and elsewhere. Born and raised in Texas, Cassy currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, serving as a volunteer naturalist, riding horses, and working as an assistant professor of Political Science. Cassy’s academic research publications can be found at the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Journal of Peace Research, and other outlets.