a pear tipping over into a ripe slant 
deep flesh fuchsia background 
ochre underneath 
and the fruit the color of the first tongue 
out of the seed new wetness 
greeting sun 
and a rubenesque plumpness a botero 
roundness the pear a pregnant 
goddess reclining 
my daughter painted this at school and she 
shows me today and i take a photo of it 
to make sure it is real 
as i put my son to sleep he fights the darkness 
with a flashlight which becomes a spaceship 
a laser a doctor’s scope 
anything to keep the eyes from closing 
he pushes up his pillow and directs 
the beam next to the wall 
i see church tunnel he says church tunnel 
and then he makes moons on the ceiling 
by blocking a lemon shaped 
angle of light with his tiny thumb 
a clear moon he says a clear moon 
and you asked me 
about my day and these are the details 
i wrote down so i can save them 
from the black shutters 
of the mind half asleep in a fruited 
globe searching for a holy tunnel 
of clean light 

Pear (painting: oil pastel on paper)

Copyrighted © 2022 by Leilani Ferry. All rights reserved.

—Poem and painting were posted to Facebook on 2 January 2023, and appear here with permissions from poet and artist.

Scott Ferry

helps our Veterans heal as an RN in the Seattle area. His next book of poetry, The Long Blade of Days Ahead, is due out in August from Impspired. Links to his other books, including his first collection, The only thing that makes sense is to grow (Moon Tide Press, 2019), are available at his website:

Ferrypoetry.com