Found Art

A brawny Atlas

flexes and ripples

chest muscles and biceps.   

Shirt fabric rips, buttons pop.

That’s how a sycamore tree grows. 

It sloughs its coat on the ground,

the good for nothing, too tight skin

falls off in hanks of flesh with holes. 

The artist picks up scraps of curled detritus, 

soaks them in a pail of water to soften,

presses the pieces between newspaper pages, 

weighs them down to flatten and dry.

She builds a walnut shadow box,

mounts the prepared tree bark on blackened birch—  

it's a natural creation of modern art

in exotic sheets of cinnamon and beige.  

Date Published: March 20, 2023