Nautilus
hope inspired by a painting
The ornate patterns of her headdress, curling, winding like a nautilus.
A nautilus. A living creature both soft and hard.
The brown shades, the tints, the tones modeling the earth —
Cocoa, mahogany, amber, henna, sienna, terra cotta.
The red shades, the tints, the tones, speaking of promises to come,
Or promises already realized but unrecognized —
Crimson, claret, burgundy, rose, maroon.
But then that one flower,
That one flower reminding us that the earth’s richness compels blossoms out of hiding.
Urges them to toss off that complex of impostor syndrome and bloom in all their radiance.
Each part of existence must be as it is,
Not as it wants to be,
Or as it is wanted to be;
As it is.
There’s a baby in a papoose,
An old soul reborn in onyx shades.
Still cool, now cool, but kept cool by a sunshade that blends with the backdrop.
The dress, studded with enormous opal cabochons,
Their pearly translucent colors placed in motion by the curves of body and kaleidoscopic fabric.
There’s a totem in the background near cylindrical huts each topped with its own headdress, plain and conical.
The armband, the bracelets, the shower of beads suspend themselves calmly from that left ear.
The layers of strong neck rosaries holding the head up in pride
As it bows gently toward gifts of the earth’s riches held aloft in a brown gourd,
A brown gourd that once held nourishment for the body,
Now holds nourishment for the spirit.
There is skin, not easily dismissed as merely brown
With its glints of bronze and copper. And more.
Depths unplumbed.
But in the end, it’s the eyes.
It is the eyes.
The eyes that have given everything to the world and now rest in blank whiteness, bold nothingness.
They wait for mysteries like those hidden in the distant ocean depths to revive, refill, replenish.
In “This Is Why It’s Essential To Express Your Creativity,” Liberty Forrest, Author, encourages those, like me, who are not natural poets, to nourish that spiritual need.
Felipe Leon U.’s piece, “A Lakota Voice” also uses the influence of another’s culture as a point of respectful inspiration.
