"Moon, Light" by Susan Solomon
Prairie Dark
What draws us to the prairie is hard
and sharp as the blade of a paring knife
pulled through peach skin.
The faint yellow of kitchen windows
pools, thins to grey between
house, barn, gravel road
in darkness deep as a flour bin,
deep as apron pockets, deep.
Somewhere in the black
a cat carries week-old kittens
from a gaping cellar split open
to canning season
hides them in a tractor tire
overgrown with lamb’s quarters.
Her ribs shift, glide,
a delicate cage where hunger paces
dark and beautiful as the shadow
crossing inside the kitchen window.
and sharp as the blade of a paring knife
pulled through peach skin.
The faint yellow of kitchen windows
pools, thins to grey between
house, barn, gravel road
in darkness deep as a flour bin,
deep as apron pockets, deep.
Somewhere in the black
a cat carries week-old kittens
from a gaping cellar split open
to canning season
hides them in a tractor tire
overgrown with lamb’s quarters.
Her ribs shift, glide,
a delicate cage where hunger paces
dark and beautiful as the shadow
crossing inside the kitchen window.
Marcella Remund lives in South Dakota, where she teaches at the University of South Dakota. She and her husband live on an acreage with dogs, cats, parrots, and peacocks.
Susan Solomon is a freelance painter living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She also edits and cartoons Sleet Magazine, an online literary journal. Susan was recently laid off from her medical office job after 11 years and is now happily painting full time. She is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the same school that claims David Lynch as an alumni. To view more paintings, please visit www.susansolomonpainter.com
