An Old Woman’s Painting

By Lynn Emanuel b. 1949 Lynn Emanuel

Scrape the sun from the wall of the sky.

Cast the great nets of autumn over the houses.

Even the throat of the lily is a dangerous inlet.

Let the world stand wearily on the stoop of the jail

of the world and the light of the mind, that small lamp,

pearl of shine, let the night come to it, as iron filings to a magnet,

mother.

Source: Poetry (February 2008).