This work is part of TAG: A Poeta Project. It is a response to Robert Fleming's Transmutation, 2020

“Untitled – A response to Robert Fleming”

A chilly applause awaits our brutal
Winter of rapture. This dance with fantasy
Has left my faith baldly departed, &
Alone I haunt dreams of cultish
Sunflowers, each one dressed up as an exotic
Fear. Now a parade. Clownish.    & yet
Each catastrophe feels regal.       & yet
One might be forgiven for mistaking thrill
As fear. The galaxy, after all, transforming
Jelly into ordinary silence.            Sooner
Or later the quiet become divine. Or
perhaps sublime—who can know the meaning
Of either? It is only possible to understand
A hand holding an umbrella on a rainy day.

By Meghann Boltz