Care

is a painting you return to every day;

to add another stroke, to follow another line;

to make it real by the way

you consider; to make me yours, to make you mine.

... is a sculpture peeled from the nothingness,

marble, clay; here a fingerprint, here a swirl.

Here—(I need your eyes to look at this—)

a questionmark; what is it now?  A girl?

A dream, a weight?  A body watched and pressed

into life?  You watch and press, breathe

me back—sometimes barely touched, sometimes caressed.

Carefully circling, you gradually unsheath

(it, her, me).  For all this labor, love, in the end,

will be the prize; love of an art, love of a friend.

Kate Light

From The Laws of Falling Bodies, Story Line Press, © 1997,
co-winner of the 1997 Nicholas Roerich Prize.  Reprinted by
permission of the author.