LEAVING UPON EXIT by Paige McBride

                                  after Rose Marie Prins painting

                                              Free, Tumbling like a Leaf in the Wind, from Life to Life

Do your black painted leaves

         mirror your black heart

                    like a ruth in stone

as you draw your tongue

          over the sunflower heart

                     in the imagination of my mind?

White-head rose,

           know               I chew you,

                                   I chew you,

I chew the words

           you spit out that slip

                     from your white wine-soaked mouth.

            & you,  you leaving upon exit            I say to you . . .

Honey, honey

          – somewhere down in your life & leaving soul

                        is honey drenched in purified

                                                fiery water.

Paige McBride is an artist, a poet, and a librarian who lives with her dog, Sir Simon, in Dunedin, Florida. She received a bachelor’s degree in English (CRW) and a master’s degree in Library and Information Science. Her poems have appeared in the West Trade Review, Tulane Review, Heartwood Literary Magazine, American Chordata, Convergence, Sunset Liminal Press, aaduna, Literary Juice, Burningword Literary Journal, and The Wayfarer among others.