by Raphael Kosek
Georgia O’Keefe’s White Rose with Larkspur No. 2 (MFA Boston)
Anywhere you want to go is here:
blue larkspur pillows white rose.
Rest in the rumple of petals,
their blowzy beauty
careless of your sins,
your griefs.
They don’t puzzle about
where love went, or what
your life is really like.
If you are tired,
they will take you
the way clouds do,
one after another.
Go, fly to them.
It is better to trust
the way they lean on air,
blue-shadowed body of rose,
than anyone’s red heart