With you pinned up in the sky
like a scarecrow in a field of apples,
knowing for hours you were going to die,
it was almost Christian
how you gave up the ghost.
You were a bruised light
tethered and
softer than a pale blue dust shard.
You were psychedelic in the papers,
as they whirled you into hero, target
victim, saviour, shame.
Yet you were only the Hanged Man,
baffled by the things that this world lacks,
how few devices in it left to save you.

Author’s Note in The Ekphrastic Review:

“This poem is from The Astronaut’s Wife: Poems of Eros and Thanatos (Handymaiden Editions, 2006). It is reprinted here today [14 June 2016] in memory of our fallen friends in Orlando, Florida.”

Publisher’s Notes:

1. This poem is republished here by author’s permission.

2. See also Benny’s Scarecrow (Jim Loper’s Coat), watercolor and black ink by Andrew Wyeth, 1955.

Lorette C. Luzajic

is a mixed-media artist and author of 17 books, ranging from collections of short fiction, essays, and poems to visual arts and photography. Her artwork has been exhibited from Toronto to Belfast to New Orleans, and her writing has been published in a hundred literary magazines and journals including Calliope, Main Street Rag, and Rattle. She is also editor of The Ekphrastic Review.

Visit her galleries at: www.mixedupmedia.ca

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⚡ Wine and Art Column by Lorette C. Luzajic in Good Food Revolution