You be the rock and I will be the river

IX.
passive time travel
multiple features of space
the salt, sugar and fat
of things that obsess us
coming to terms with our past.



X.
Sands of Time
an hourglass
Mortality
in the shape
of a Woman.



XI.
Women in teal with cheetah print
aprons, wire frame
glasses and chunky necklaces
from Guatemala silk scarves
from Cambodia
scrubbing bright colors
onto their canvases



XII.
autumn trees frame
parts of the ancient brick
turret outside the window
rust streaking the walls
matching the rust color of the
trees, just as the grey
of the brick matches
the perpetually grey sky.



XIII.
Succinct, dry, older Russian professor looked at me through my tears
after I put a robe over my naked body
while the students took a break from drawing me.

'Look,' he told me, 'I'm not into giving advice, but you are too young to worry so much about someone else's problems.'

He talked vaguely about his mother needing some kind of surgery, complicated
he can't paint, because it is such a thinking process, such a mental focus
and he is too obsessive compulsive to stop thinking
about his mother.

So he does mindless things.
He ironed every shirt in his house.



XIV.
I wanted to be nothing
but muscle and sinew
an archetype
wolf as chaos
rather than
woman as grail
a vessel
to be held, filled
tree that bears fruit,
holds up the sky
home base, earth
man is that sky?
the spear flying through the air?
the act of filling,
expansion?
the bow of the body needs
its own arrow
of time, intention
what am I if my curves melt away
into nothing
but muscle and sinew?