Diane Averill (2 poems)
IN BLOOM
spring rolls in
after a winter too full of greys
people pause
in this old-new light
and look up to the soft
opening beaks
of magnolia blooms
then beyond into blue
a boy's arms turn
forsythia
and a woman reclines in a wheelchair
completely covered in clothes
the colors of forest duff~
except for her smile-bright flowerface
On Seeing Bonnard's Nude in the Bathtub After Hearing About a Rape in the Wildlife Refuge
The Painter hovers above her.
He’s a black-backed gull
or silver-eyed party goer searching for
hor d’oeuvres. Shell-shaped
porcelain curves around her
oyster-blue body.
One anemone palm opens over her
legs thin as driftwood.
Colored tiles shine on the water,
turn her skin violet,
transparent,
starfish-red.
Like the woman raped
she has a dog that looks up
with too-gentle eyes
from its nest-like mat.
This dog will lick
droplets from the woman’s ankles
as if she were one of the puppies,
as if no one had
broken her.
Diane Averill's two books were finalists for the Oregon Book Award: Branches Doubled Over With Fruit, from University of Florida Press, and Beautiful Obstacles, from Blue Light Press.
She's published in many literary magazines and anthologies around the country.