Featured Image: Red Kite
Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 inches
© 2017 – Olive Chan

A Red Kite

It’s a girl!  Really? Then she’s Emma.
You laid hold of me fiercely
Enough like me to believe you’re mine
But always only yourself

You laid hold of me fiercely
Skin to skin, eye to eye, hand over hand
But always only yourself
A red kite bucking in a gale

Skin to skin, eye to eye, hand over hand
Speechless but with so much to say
A red kite bucking in a gale
Afraid at times to lose my grip

Speechless but with so much to say
We argue with hearts hammering
Afraid at times to lose my grip
A thin string holds earth to sky

We argue with hearts hammering
Enough like me to believe you’re mine
A thin string holds earth to sky
It’s a girl! Really?  Then she’s Emma.

I will hold on fiercely and let you be
Always, only yourself.

© 2017 – Laurel Archer

This is the perfect day to post something about Emma – May the 4th which is parodied as May the Fourth (force) be with you – because Emma has always possessed an strong inner force, a strength of character that cannot be ignored.  Sometimes when I write a poem it resonates deeply with me.  Whether or not I have manage to capture that in the poem is up to the reader to decide, but this one resonated so strongly with me that I asked Olive Chan, my friend and artist to capture the image in a painting.

Olive and I have collaborated before with poetry and painting, but it’s been awhile so I was excited to do so again and thrilled to highlight her work here alongside the poem, A Red Kite.  Thank you Olive for creating such a beautiful accompaniment to the poem.

Here’s my geeky t-shirt my husband gave me, which I can’t help but read F = ma (Force = em-ah, or emma) Celebrating a strong young lady today.