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”:
Mr Busang, your work is beautiful.