Riddle & Zamir — Nov. 14

Dina Riddle and Monique Zamir traded art and words. Dina shared this painting, “Changes,” with Monique:

In response, Monique wrote this poem:

The Red Ventricle Fractures into Pieces

Green wisps not etched
into the peacock’s foot, woven
so they unravel the way tulips threadbare
in the fall die not knowing
they’ll be woven again.

What matters? The crystallized
veins of a shrew? The blue residue
of a swallow’s scream, repellant
on the young sapling? A blade
in negative space cuts nothing
but the rind. As if
the melon weren’t reaching
for its already severed half.
Water the moment down in two,

the vertiginous tooth pierces the cliffside,
the rocks canaried yellow. A pepper burnt
orange collapses under glossed purple lips
wanting more than what’s left:
a red ventricle shifting to the tepid south,

a hand clawing at remnants of a songbird,
the brace of an out of tune guitar.
In this whittled heart, the blood leaves
in a pulse different from its start.

* * * * *

Monique shared this poem with Dina:

In response, Dina made this painting, entitled “Sand in the Cactus”: