NIGHT FLIGHT

by Regina Cherry

Angels with blackened wings
mortals with uncertain hearts
trembling
trembling with fear and shame
anger, strain and emotion
excitement pain
heat and cold
expectation
love a sigh's memory
shiver through caged hearts
exhaled without thought    yet
welling up again and again
smoldering
lost embers in cold fire
cadmium orange vermillion
camouflaged by white frosted
gray

Fred's green vermillion
orange paintings cryptic
layered layered the trace
in name only - the memory
each of his paintings
a monument tombstone
to a lost memory unknown
to him six million plus
strokes of boiled
oil-resin paint
on which he burned
his hands
tonight
I finally see
your paintings