Glitter Bath

The flower began to slump over
The stem began to break
Dressed in black and rain-soaked holding this broken white orchid

When she shut herself in to paint, her canvas, like a tiny graveyard
Mimicking an even smaller universe, opened up,
6 or more feet down and actualized as the equivalent of a portal to somewhere in space
Like a vortex of toys and teeth
A blur of a few birthdays and Christmases

She painted the ashes
Into her piece that sat reverent like a Bible on its stand
And the paint swallowed the matter like an ocean settling and calming sand onto its bottom

She manifested her intentions
For her child into her art
Created, as a mantra for healing, a vice, and a cross to clutch

The body was broken and given like last communion
Burnt and condensed by the elements into its original form
Materialized from stardust
A spiritual flesh-vessel sacrifice to the art-God

Given to an audience who cannot understand
A place of rest, hope-more than a source of texture
A painting that can never be finished-a physical burden that can never be discarded
Pressure to make beauty in death, something that cannot be paralleled
By earthly aesthetics