the blueshift journal

 “No black in nature,”

 

said the impressionists, 

 

but other lore had it 

 

that black paints were 

 

made from carcasses. 

 

Medieval ink: from 

 

oak galls, swollen growths 

 

around wasp nests.

 

Tang dynasty gentlemen 

 

used black to portray 

 

landscapes of the mind. 

From our small 

 

boat, over the surface

 

of the black lake

 

we fling petals—

 

coreopsis, lilac, 

 

mallow—along with 

 

our mother’s ashes. 

 

Pink, lavender, 

 

yellow scattered on

 

the surface and then, 

 

the lake closes over, black.