Fernandes & Walker-Lass – November 2023

Debbie Walker-Lass and Linda Fernandes traded art and words. Debbie shared this collage, titled “In Dreams,” with Linda:

In response, Linda wrote this:

A Taste of Honey

She arrived at my door,
A vision of Venus
Illuminated by a slanted ray of sun,
Cradling a glass jar like a rounded infant,
And extended an invitation
I could scarcely decline.

Then I found myself in her kitchen,
Running my fingertips
Across the cold of a mosaic tabletop—
Made by her hands, she confessed.

I wondered how it might feel
To be a shard of ceramic—
Held by her,
Fitted neatly
Into some small space in her life
That nothing else could fill.

I still relive her,
Morning on her skin—
Ethereal siren, slicing apples,
Dripping them golden with honey,
And placing a sliver in my mouth.
So naturally she drew me
To a taste for her sticky situation.

Now, I watch from my window
As she genuflects to her garden patch
And praise a God I don’t believe in
For geraniums and dirt and sunshine,
Living for a dream
In which her outstretched arms
Meet mine.

* * * * *

Linda shared this poem with Debbie:

Your Hands

Often, when I’m left to my thoughts,
I find they flutter off
And settle like little blue butterflies on your hands.

How they dance across the strings of your guitar,
And how my gaze cannot help but follow their lead.

How they paint me pictures of sunsets by the sea
And leave me longing for those shores.

How their ridges and furrows remind me of calm mountains,
Where one moment they would firmly guide me
And gently brush the hair away from my eyes in the next.

How the spaces between your fingers feel like infinity,
Like time is ours for the taking,
And how we take it.

How patiently your fingertips traverse light years on my skin.
It’s almost as if they do not know
That love was not made for you and me.

In response, Debbie made this image, titled “Belong to Yourself”: