— Inspired by Marilyn Maxwell’s
— archival pigment print
— “Palm Tree with Wild Dogs”
When I saw your world,
your internal landscape—
desperate depiction
reflected in the growling
gray clouds, the lonely
palm tree shining like fire,
still yet frantic, caught
between light and dark,
the lanky, languid wild
dogs wandering forever
in that moment, one flash
between sky and water,
serenity and violence—
I saw your meaning,
your fear, the risk,
their vulnerability,
not from a raw habitat,
but rather from a species
who can’t imagine value
in naked space or such
uncontrollable places.
