The following three poems composed by Kentucky resident, Kelsey McMurtrey, with accompanying artwork by Monologging artist and Hawaii resident, Lauren Elyse, continue the collaboration this pair began last November, entitled Vignette. Since embarking on this project, Kelsey’s poetry and Lauren’s paintings have been viewed by over 1,000 visitors, demonstrating the power of monologging.org to bring creative networks together through artistic collaboration. Kelsey and Lauren are now in the beginning stages of writing and designing a composite book derived from their bimonthly installments originally published online. The two converse primarily via email and their exciting collaboration has inspired thematic discussions and imaginative storytelling. In this third installment a theme of entrapment colors each scene. Lauren’s flowers and elegantly dressed dancer’s legs, stretch the canvas in shy pose. Likewise, with imagery reminiscent of Virginia Woolf’s, “To the Lighthouse” and “The Waves,” Kelsey pours emotion into every stanza, developing voices that are trembling with claustrophobia, on a precipice, about to fall…

 

Vignette III

 

Pull-tide

 

She sank.

Let her body

tangle beneath deep pulsing tides—

Rolling waves

dragged her bows,

The sea pulled, wrapped,

left her limp and breathless—

thrown upon

the shore.

 

Silver grains

reached for wooden sides,

pulled her flinching toes.

Blue glass poured through crevasses,

saltwater on

sinewy ankles,

swallowing etched phrases,

beckoning her,

wanting her back.

She stayed,

 

motionless.

 

 

Statuesque

Sunlight

pours freckles in thick honey

over my mineral body—

I am

stone.

Redundant couplets

echo in mirrored halls—

Passing lovers

earless

to my muffled heartbeat,

thumping in cold statue

beside marble gods.

Blood beats inside me,

hidden

under gray stone.

I am soft in your arms,

chased by warm lips,

not

pushed against golden walls—

a hollow cast

on display.

 

Elizabeth

 

Linking arms with double-breasted suits,

weaving through flashing bulbs,

gray newspaper column exposés—

they love your

overdressed shadow,

over-exposed wrists,

empty stare.

 

Unscrew the lens cap from your eyes

to see

violet lovers,

planted in a row.

Plucking them up,

shake their cotton petals—

lay them limp and breathless.

Pulling through thick eyelashes,

inspecting their creased palms,

reading them:

Loveless,

wilted.

***

READ MORE VIGNETTES: Vignette I, Vignette II