Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues
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Child’s Dance (oil on canvas, 30x30) by Wayne Trapp
Beggar’s-Lice by Susan laughter Meyers
2012 James Applewhite Poetry Prize finalist Mornings at the clothesline I’d cling to Mother’s skirt and twirl myself into the gores. For every step she took I took four, green shadow lost in her moves. She swayed to the quick mechanics of hanging sheets: the shake, reach, drape, and pinch her hands had memorized. Only at her nudge would I unfurl, dancing down the tunnel of towels to the song of clean laundry, my fingers skimming the sky. Nights of wishing on stars I yearned to brave a wider course, to fly like you, my hitchhiker who’s never shy – turning wishes into horses to catch a ride. To cross a roadside ditch or open field of ragweed, rattlebox, and vetch is to give you a lift. Dull sequins beading my socks, you teach tenacity’s best lesson. You stay and stay, but go. Is it for the sake of the child never picked that you play, little stickseed, your one good trick?
Vilas, NC, resident Wayne Trapp received his BFA from Ohio State University. He also studied at the Pratt Institute, the Arts Students League, and the Institute of Art in Pittsburgh. His works are in the permanent collections of the Mint Museum in Charlotte,
NC, and the Hickory Museum in Hickory, NC, as well as in numerous public and private collections. He is represented in North Carolina by City Art Gallery, Adam Cave Fine Art, and Tyndall Galleries. See more of his work on his website.