The Desert’s Voice, More Fierce

“Ram’s Head , with Hollyhock” painting by Georgia O’Keeffe

Here’s a poem I wrote about Georgia O’Keeffe, after I saw the postcard of her which appears at the end of the post:

 

Georgia O’Keeffe looks over her shoulder

 

Just when she thinks she’s painted all her fear,

When bleached skulls turn to poppies red as lust,

The sound of something wild attracts her ear.

 

Black jacket, white soft collar curving near

the place where desert sunset turns to rust

awakens in that neck a prickling fear.

 

The haunches of dead lovers gleam as clear

in skulls as in the orchid’s velvet crust.

Dry rattling of bone curls back her ear.

 

Her upswept silken hair declares the year

in shades of gray and tortoise brown as dust

just when she thought she’d painted all her fear.

 

Her thin pink pearl of seashell curves to hear

the desert’s voice, more fierce, more dry than just,

as three fine wrinkles flow down from her ear.

 

Such gaunt grace turns her, luscious and severe,

containing bones and orchids, fruit and crust!

Just when she thinks she’s painted all her fear,

the sound of something wild attracts her ear.

 

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/fierce/”>Fierce</a&gt;