Creativity - Frank Curtis

Mixed Media
23" x 11"
 
Her Keep
by Stephanie Seguin
​
   She keeps her corner carefully, according to the latest trends on Pinterest and Real Simple magazine. She paints herself in bright colors because they remind her of her used-to-be life, golden stars hung over deepest ocean, possibilities stretched to the heavens.
She keeps her brush close, to watercolor her walls, paper her corridors, shellac her floors. She surrounds herself with reveries of solitary strolls along the shore (seafoam green with eggshell finish, accent pillows of rusty sunset orange.)  Her eyes tilt ever toward that vast expanse of blue, so close it could snap shut on a hinge at any moment.
   She keeps small beasts. They came to her from afar, gifts from the gods wrapped in joy and grief. Exquisitely carved and beautiful fit to crack her heart wide and puddle it on the floor, they roam room to room dismantling her universe. They dump out boxes and smear walls, spill their glory all over the rusty sunset throw pillows. They claim her, press in until she feels her ocean shrink to a sliver bare enough for an outstretched toe.
   But there will come a day, she knows, for it has been foretold, when mythical creatures write their stardust hearts into epic adventures. Then, on a ship carved from wooden spoons and cracker crumbs, she will cross the expanding sea to that far away threshold. Beyond, endless blue and possibilities that stretch to the heavens.