Kermes & Crossman – February 2021
Lana Crossman and Sanzi Kermes traded art and words. Sanzi shared this untitled image with Lana:

In response, Lana wrote this poem:
For the love of Wiley
It was not the last game we played
but it’s the one I remember best.
Letters latticed across the board
you placing your last tile with
the grace of a gracious winner
a painter’s precision, nestled
in the gap between before and
then, when you ran out of words.
The board has since softened.
I fold it like a love note
a charm slid into a fortune cookie
a child’s game I finger-thumb
and lift the flaps for answers.
Or, maybe, like today, I bend
it into something precious, press
my lips to its folds, breathe
and resuscitate.
* * * * *
Lana shared this poem with Sanzi:
Patchwork
In the attic room, they stretched
me over the frame,
so taut you could bounce
a coin off of me.
At my borders, women bowed,
murmuring quiet consolations
as they stuck me with needles.
Their stitches closed no wound,
left no scar, only a trail
winding through fields
of colour, pinwheels pieced
from harvested hand-me-downs.
When the last thread was cut,
they boxed me up and sent me to live
with the newlyweds.
To blanket their bodies, curl up
under their chins and slide
between their thighs.
In response, Sanzi made this piece titled “Patchwork”:
