Art Class

By Kelli Lage

I met both of you in art class / one spinning clay / the other painting a sunset / our lives pulled to an audience to show the imitation of art / the sunset bowing down / mirrored you bowing out / and the clay carelessly thrown together / mirrored a broken pot carelessly thrown in your kitchen / imagine what could have been made if I’d used my own two hands / back then my fingertips could barely muster the touch of lightning on your chests / now with palms strong enough to pull rapids / I sculpt out prom dresses that don’t tear / old cars with automatic seat belts that don’t grip my neck / and hometowns that don’t hold your faces in its riverside dimples

Kelli Lage is earning her degree in Secondary English Education and works as a substitute teacher. She is a poetry reader for Bracken Magazine. Lage's work has appeared in The Lumiere Review, Welter Journal, Watershed Review, and elsewhere. Website: www.KelliLage.com.