Hairbrush 
bug-like on its backside 
bristling with white 

	Spilled seeds with faulty memories 
	waiting, still, on the bench 

Dread and pleasure 
jostle for space in my veins 
distilled and irreconcilable 

	I stand before the weeks-old arrangement 
	preparing to toss it 

	as late light pierces the onion flower 
	just now breaking its sheath. 

Publisher’s Notes:

An example of still-life sculpture by contemporary American artist Libby Black, as exhibited at MCD (The Museum of Craft and Design) in San Francisco: The Build Up, 2021 (paper, paint, pencil, and glue); click on image for larger views.

Visit Libby Black’s website galleries to view selections of her drawings, paintings, and her still-life sculptures, the latter of which also includes Secrets (2018; paper, acrylic paint, pencil, and glue):
https://www.libbyblack.com/sculptures

For more about the artist and her works, see Libby Black Processes the World Around Her By Recreating It, an art review by Maria Porges in Hyperallergic (15 May 2022).

Links retrieved on 22 August 2023.

Nina Lindsay

is a previous contributor to KYSO Flash and the author of two collections of poetry from Sixteen Rivers Press: Because (2016) and Today’s Special Dish (2007). Her work has appeared in Barrow Street, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Poetry International, Prairie Schooner, Third Coast, and other journals.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ After Rain, a poem by Nina Lindsay in Cider Press Review (Volume 23-1, April 2021)

⚡ Nina Lindsay at Sixteen Rivers Press (includes numerous resource links)

⚡ When I Was the Moon, a poem in KYSO Flash (Issue 11, Spring 2019)

⚡ To the Evening, a poem in KYSO Flash (Issue 2, Winter 2015)