LaFollette & Busang – Feb. 15

Brett Busang and Kristin LaFollette traded art and words. Brett shared this painting, entitled “Rockpile,” with Kristin:

In response, Kristin wrote this poem:

Deed’s Creek

Two children,

            the girl older than the boy,

ride bicycles on the soft ground—

The girl falls, the sharp points of a
plant now imbedded in the palm of her

hand like a birthmark that was there

            all her life—

Both children,
            born in winter,

            enjoy the heat of

the sunbaked dirt as they kick it
around with their feet—

The girl child, she takes care of the
boy, surrounds their fortress with

walls of rock—

Surrounded by so many new homes,
the children wish for these lots to

remain vacant—

             The girl, a blueprint of the world visible on
the surface of her skin, thinks she may be a doctor.

The other child, the young boy—

             A child she wants to pull in a red wagon,
             a child she wants to hold into the ground until
                           his body becomes a fossil—

A child protected by rocks,

            sheathed like a soft yolk,

            reborn like a winged insect,

            loved as a desperate drink of water.

* * * * *

Kristin shared this poem with Brett:

Cat People

As if I was meant to have
            blue eyes—

The way I look out on
            the water—

You with a black cat;
            Us, dyeing our hair

black, the towels stained
            purple.

A rock garden outside built
           by your father is in

the shape of your face;
            When I think of you—

A hot August day where
            we ran through a green

soybean field, the plants
            like small people under

our feet. Us, lifting a canoe,
            carrying it up out of the

river during a drought;
            A house in the distance

that we didn’t know would
            burn down the following

            winter.

In response, Brett made this painting, entitled “A house in the distance”: