A Country Rag Occasional Treats

"resurrection dance"

By Vera A. Jones and Naki

watching watercolor melt on paper...
dripping with pigment, seeking out life,
hogs hair and cheap hardware store brushes
flinging this life around, it sticks under my fingernails,
saran wrap, razor blades, the cheaper the kleenex the better
rose madder genuine, alizirin crimson, forgive and unforgiven
flick of the wrist, gouging with knives and smudging with spit,
past lives revealed as you bleed on it and roll in it.

more color, less precise, saving the white of the paper,
says too much or not enough, screams while speaking softly.
lines drawn, redrawn and rubbed out, drawn again and finally burned,
drawn in circles drawn through this life and my learning to see.
throwing color on color and line on line, changing directions,
scraping away the layers, revealing the dance with water.
but still the image eludes, waiting for calculated caresses,
fits of passion, waiting and growing, festering, enlightening, teasing.
revelation in color, scalding the paper, fibers swollen with moisture,
fresh, dripping, painfully strong, exposing the truth of my knowing.

is it mirrored pain, or lust, this mysterious image,
natural disaster and resurrection both, crawl to the edge of my world,
leap out and wrap yourself around my heart.
the image now fed, grows, nurtured with pure pigment,
I stand before it in awe...the image...born of danger and of light.