Ronda Piszk Broatch

DEAR VINCENT IN A FIELD OF GOLD, A CHARM OF SOULS

How does wheat love the yeast of wild stars?
I’ve become a mess in a world burning itself. 

And tell me, with so much fire, how does the sea
love what it loves? Do our gods howl with fury

because inside we’re all thorns and ravening?
How many hands does it take to paint the sun,

to clear the forest of dew? Vincent, hesitation 
once whispered in my ear, too. In a space of 

quantifiable things we recall the bowed heads
of sunflowers, of violet in the sapphire sky.

Poet and photographer, Ronda Piszk Broatch is the author of Lake of Fallen Constellations, (MoonPath Press, 2015). Ronda is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant, and her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart prize. Her journal publications include Blackbird, 2River, Sycamore Review, Missouri Review, Palette Poetry, and Public Radio KUOW’s All Things Considered, among others.