I hold
this five-fingered maple leaf, brown-faded
and crisp, and
think of my mother's hand.
The way time has
wrinkled and shrunk once porous cells,
the way veins
assert themselves in absence of moisture,
the way lines on
the inside of a once soft palm tell stories
of what was held:
breezes,
rain, thunder
love,
eggs, moonlight
morning's
insistent dew.
I hold the curve of
this leaf gently, knowing
if I squeeze too
hard the form will crumble into dust,
and I will be left
with nothing but memory of the grand flash
of autumn's
brilliant flames:
ochres,
burgundies
oranges,
crimson-yellows
browns
and russet hues,
before
fire turns to ash.
Acrylic by Jody Flynn inspired by Ruthelen
Burns’ poem Fallen as part of the Art of Poetry Tour, a collaboration of poets with
artists from Art in Hand Gallery in Zionsville, Indiana. (Photo by Jody Flynn)
Ruthelen Burns is a mixed-media artist and
a poet, and has shown her work at Southern Methodist University, the Herron
School of Art and the
Jody Flynn was raised in Louisville and attended college in New Hampshire. Mother of four, she is an artist mostly painting abstract landscapes in acrylic and oil.