Duggan & Hopkinson – November 2017

Trish Hopkinson and Teresa Duggan traded art and words. Teresa shared this image with Trish:

In response, Trish wrote this poem:

sideways

* * * * *

Trish shared this poem with Teresa:

Interrogation

Her skin stretches
across the reflective glass,
too thick and soft below
the cheekbones and pushing
down into sagging jowls,
pulling crevasses from eye-edges,
from corners of colorless lips.
I lean in to examine the dark
swelling of her lower lids,
the pockmarks in cheek hollows,
the aged splashes of freckles
spattered like sun spots
on a pale canvas.
Who is this middle-aged woman—
at a glance, she is the one
I’ve always known,
but when I stop
and observe her,
she’s different.
It’s as if a bare bulb swings
from industrial rafters
in a barren room. I sit
across the table from her
in a folding chair, offer her
a cigarette, and ask her
where she’s been.

In response, Teresa made this image, titled “Reflecting Pool”: