Mark E. Hayes

GHOST

best-known among                              all the work
  the flowers close                              vulvate intimate
    harmonious                              arrangement of
        color line                             and light and
            dark this last                  something known
              by the Japanese           as notan you
              will have to              look it up I’m
                  afraid Georgia  O’Keefe spent
                      time in many states Wisconsin
                        New York Illinois Virginia
                        South Carolina Texas
                        New Mexico Ghost Ranch
                    with Stieglitz        taking photos
                  of his homely            brilliant wife
                such attention               from him to her
              such attention                  of hers on herself
            the flower open                  peering out at her
          the heart of her                      now posters and
        screensavers and                        mousepads and
      t-shirts and adorning                    every third
    dormitory room and                         every tenth
   sunny breakfast nook                          what would she
  think she who longed                              for ever starker
landscapes ever more                                  open spaces

—from Rattle #23, Summer 2005