How to Paint
after ‘Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth’ by Georgia O’Keeffe
Begin with the color of bone––jaw
cracked in two, marrow and paint
spread thick on canvas. Then feel
The bone’s sharp need––desire
you can run your tongue over, cutting
deep grooves of taste and blood into the muscle.
Dip your brush in that red, stroke
the white surface, encase it in a body––
vision enclosed in the curve of an egg.
Only now are you prepared––hungry
teeth primed to bite into the sweet pink shell
and mouth bloodied, red and ready,
To swallow its stone.
published in Creation Stories by Amy Wray Irish, Green Fuse Press, 2008 (second edition, 2016)
