​Still Life with Blue Mug & Lemon, by D. Walsh Gilbert

Still Life with Blue Mug & Lemon, by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura (USA) 2019. Click image for artist site.

​Still Life with Blue Mug & Lemon 
 
Clay slipped from the alluvium. 
Labor          burnishing the maker’s hands. 
 
Seawater, cloud water          mist, fog, dew— 
what dissolves,  
what bends, 
what binds a matrix      back together.  
 
Belly in the mud      and rain— 
once, fishes crawled from rivers      on their fins. 
 
The spin, the potter’s wheel. 
Day, night.          Day, night.           
Say aubade.              Sing nocturne. 
 
An ochre body bisques.          
A scar is left          to darken, deepen. 
The face of a porcelain doll. 
 
Volcanic kilns      ash the fire’s wood— 
destruction for creation.        
Every atom of us       the clay of lemon-yellow stars. 
Our immortal clay. 
 
Finally, a cup— 
the bowl of ocean.  
We drink, 
to touch our lip             onto the edge of blue.

D. Walsh Gilbert

D. Walsh Gilbert is the author of Ransom (Grayson Books, 2017). A Pushcart nominee, she has also received honors from The Farmington River Literary Arts Center and the Artist for Artists Project at the Hartford Art School.  Her work has appeared in Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts, Ireland of the Welcomes, The Café Review, and Verse Daily, among others.She serves on the board of the non-profit, Riverwood Poetry Series, and as co-editor of the Connecticut River Review published by the Connecticut Poetry Society. She lives in a rural setting in Connecticut.