Fauves, by Yael Herzog

Fauvism

In the 1900s, they called it fauvism. Separating
color from its descriptive, representational purpose, 
allowing it to exist on the canvas as 
an independent element. I have lost you entirely.

I am naked from my waist to my ankles, and fauvism is dripping from me like tears.
If this is departure, so be it. And if you 
must distance (your legs fallen through mine, your body 
on me like a cloud) us
from each other, so be it--I am a bucket pouring
itself into you apart 
from (pulling
you through tight alleys behind 
buildings where parents are washing away through all their exhaustion, through
all of their dishes, crusting, we 
laughed as we undid each other, slipped our fingers
into places descriptive, representational) purpose, let 
us open ourselves like skies or like oceans,
dump our fluids out onto the earth as if there is nothing
to become of us.
I will drip myself empty into unbirthed
spaces, or whisper to you songs that lie, saying,
pigments are leaving me now, which could not
have been a description
of you carving your rib from
yourself like a moment, and
becoming. 

Yael Herzog

Yael Herzog: "I have received my MFA from Bar Ilan University, and received the Andrea Moriah Poetry Prize in May, 2017. My work has previously been published in Eclectica Magazine and Aurora Poetry, and was nominated for the Sundress Publications 2019 Best of the Net Anthology. I grew up in New Jersey and now live in Tel Aviv, Israel, where I teach English to middle school and high school students.