by Rebecca Ledbetter
Pieces of Weather
- Cerulean. No wisp of cloud or twist of wave to suggest how it relates to the perspective. Something seen only in the distance. It has the imperious beauty of an existence that discloses nothing about itself.
- Pink and white. The conceit of a parasol carried by a pale young girl. She studies the sea froth with frankness.
- Tan and white. Sand on a beach seen at a particular time, from a particular angle, yet set in the forever.
- Beige and grey. Something that is passing over subtracts color from the scene like premature change of season or an early nightfall.
- Brown striations. Railings or timbers. Straight lines channeled through the surging sea.
- Silver. Where water has stayed. As likely to dry up as be rejoined to the whole.
- Green. A swirl of brushwork that may represent any of a thousand things. The impasto is an observation about observation.
- White and blue. An edge piece to be matched against our memory of the sky as it is in summer.
- Grey in blue. A portion of ship. The ship color and the background color complement each other, yet each represents a different physicality, a different reference in space, one floating upon the other.
- Black, white, yellow. Two gulls. You know from the box where the gulls fit into the composition. The remainder of the puzzle is everything else.
- Red. A small allowance of excitement like a blast of horns after a languid string movement.
- White. A wisp of fog burning off on the horizon. Weather petrified before it can depart.
- Ivory. The morning that the artist started with. Now overpainted with details.
- Black lines over green and red. A portion of the signature, a certification that nothing will be allowed to change.
Chris Bullard lives in Philadelphia. He received his B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.F.A. from Wilkes University. Kattywompus Press published High Pulp, a collection of his flash fiction, in 2017 and Grey Book Press published Continued, a poetry chapbook, this year. His work has appeared in recent issues of Nimrod, Muse/A Journal, The Woven Tale, Red Coyote, Cutthroat and The Offbeat.
Rebecca Ledbetter is a poet and artist who seeks to understand the relationships and interactions we experience every day, and how those connections shape us. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes more serious, she writes the words in a poem in a carefully curated way, much the same way a painter brushes strokes onto a canvas. She received her BA in Communications and Studio Art from Denison University in 2013, and since then has showcased work in Philadelphia, Granville, OH, and Martha’s Vineyard, and currently resides and works in Philadelphia, PA.