Un Mundo

—Ángeles Santos (1929); oil on canvas; 290 x 310 cm

Tell me where they end, the stars

that fire from the sun
who chars the world

makes corners

for its turning—

in a Spanish town

there was an angel painting

a child of nineteen, some say

the Spanish Rimbaud—

she held a vision of the hanging world—

with wisps of women climbing stairs

to light the stars they carried

and all of time was there in violet scarves—

whispering the words of Jiménez that moved her as a child—

            vague mauve angels / were putting out the green stars

what happens when you reach a peak so early—

meet moon-faced women making music for a lifetime

have seen the strings that web the stars—

Sharon Tracey is a writer, editor and author of the poetry collection, What I Remember Most Is Everything (ALL CAPS PUBLISHING, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Common Ground Review, Silkworm, Canary, Ekphrasis and elsewhere. She is currently writing a series of poems inspired by the paintings of women artists working over the past five centuries. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of California Berkeley and lives in western Massachusetts. www.sharontracey.com