Mauve 1888
After Van Gogh’s “The Pink Peach Tree”

We let the summer’s high peach tree wreathe
our glasses, insect wings above our heads. The white birds
grow into a canvas of wings by the ploughed lilac
field where the pink bulbs croon a fair shade.
We play with the fur caps of pollen,
while fumbling with the knots in our knit shirts. And out
of the rain, a blackbird sings from the orchard
that quiets into clarity and quenches into blossom. Later,
the migrant birds fly into calm steps, the muzzle of shower,
blue inlets of windows. In this blue sky, like the seeds
by the reed fence, the rain beckons into flight.

 

 

Alisha Yi is a senior at Ed. W Clark High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has been named a 2017 National YoungArts Finalist in Writing for poetry. Her work has also been recognized by National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Princeton University, Columbia College, the Adroit Prizes for Poetry & Prose, and Hollins University, among others. She has work in or forthcoming from The Adroit Journal, Slice Magazine, the Miami Rail, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and elsewhere. 

 

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