Poem a Day: 59th Street Studio

59th Street Studio

sit in dark
orange light bleeds through
 drips in my hands
you light a cigarette
and pace the room.

night extinguishes your face
smoke traces white veins in air behind you
piano strains lilt away as we
quaff the last draught of the twilight before dawn.

watch morning's rosy axe cleave
the night lingering about my window
as the shadow of you dissolves
leaving no trace of your passing.

sweep my hand across the page
swipe away a tear
and mark my place
if only to measure what i've lost.

This poem was inspired by Georgia O'Keefe's 59th Street Studio. It's not one of her better known paintings, but it is one of my favorites. I imagined this story taking place in the room lit by this window, where a woman imagines the ghost of a man she lost somewhere along the way. They share a single night lit in orange by this window, but in the morning she has to accept that he is gone and move on.