The Yellow Chair

Matthew Woodman

after Rufino Tamayo’s La silla amarilla, 1929

We forgot to prop
the branches broke

the fruit weighs too
much to bear

the flesh sweetens
soft sour leggings

a mouth pruned
and de-thorned

The fermented sun
in summer sucks

the wild desert honey
where are the bees

maybe still in the tree
drunk on loss &
​
colony collapse come
we’ve saved your seat

 
 
 

about the writer

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Matthew Woodman teaches at California State University, Bakersfield and is the founding editor of Rabid Oak. His writing appears in recent issues of or is forthcoming in MORIA, Storm Cellar, 8 Poems, and The Shore, and more of his work can be found at www.matthewwoodman.com.