Reclamation
by Lavina Blossom
Two magazine scraps plucked from the waste basket, smeared with excess paint from the palette. Then, what to make of that shape? An animal’s head. A landscape of flesh. More ripping, fitting together, and here is a three-legged bull. Head tipped up, neck stretched over the flat turquoise sky, proclaiming silently: From the Ashes. (And from the cleft brain pressed to preservation.) Gazing past the frame.
Lavina Blossom lives in Southern California, writing, painting, and growing a native California garden of drought-tolerant plants that support local fauna. Her art has appeared on the cover of several poetry books. Her poems have appeared in various journals, including 3Elements Review, Common Ground Review, Book of Matches, The MacGuffin, Ekphrastic Review, Poemeleon, and Verse Virtual. Her flash fiction has appeared in 10 by 10 Flash, Every Day Fiction, Bull, and Okay Donkey. Here to Be Remade, her chapbook of poems and visual art, was published by Bamboo Dart Press.
From the Ashes, paper collage, 12 x 12 inches, 2021. Click image to enlarge.