It's Still Life

The Woman Who Lies with Rocks

This woman is terrified of her own sanity.
Some days, she thinks she looks like
Churchill’s bulldog, so she dresses in pink

because dogs don’t wear pink by choice,
and passerbys will smile and think,
There goes that lovely woman in pink.

But her sanity is a hatchery of anxiety.

Sanity makes her over-think,
makes her tongue thick and dry,
and it ignites storms in her brain.

It burns the way Earth sparks and smoulders.

She remembers her mother’s voice,
calming one moment and cackling
lunacy the next, and she remembers

lullabies and her mother rocking her to sleep.

So she waits for the lullabies to come.
Lies on the ground and sleeps with rocks,
thinking they’re meant to rock her to sleep.

---

Written for dVerse Poets “Ekphrastic Poetry” prompt based on María Berrío, Closed Geometry, 2022 painting. Some artwork is created using Midjourney, and will always be labeled as AI in ALT.. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023.