(You can view Sage’s painting “The Answer is No” here)
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On “The Answer Is No” by Kay Sage
Things left undone can become
a city, further out,
and have little lives of their own.
Mold blooms in teas you never tried.
Poems you meant to write paper a bathroom.
You are somewhere in that
city of unhemned garments.
The answer is “no” to a complicated question
I cannot bear to ask.
How “no” can become white noise
after a while, when uttered enough times.
Rapid spinning makes you weightless.
Preponderance becomes iteration,
iteration becomes quiet.
Quiet like barren,
quiet like cataracts,
quiet like something you slip into
your pocket and never let out.
I have glowed as much as I could,
in green and other light.
There was nothing left to do but scream.
Now you’re waiting for me again,
past the frames holding canvasses
like gums hold teeth.
I’m on my way.
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About the Author: Nadia Arioli (nee Wolnisty) is the founder and editor in chief of Thimble Literary Magazine. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Spry, SWWIM, Apogee, Penn Review, McNeese Review, Kissing Dynamite, Bateau, Heavy Feather Review, Whale Road Review, SOFTBLOW, and others. They have chapbooks from Cringe-Worthy Poetry Collective, Dancing Girl Press, and a full-length from Spartan.
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More by Nadia Arioli:
On “I Walk Without Echo” by Kay Sage
On “The Fourteen Daggers” by Kay Sage
As It Ought To Be 