Sunflowers
by Maralee Gerke

sunflowers
create a display in gardens and fields
yellow is their essential brilliance.

Yellow:
The color of worship
as old as the Inca
bringing sunflowers to the temple.

Yellow:
ochre, the color of horses
painted on the walls of Lascaux
and stained ancient hands.

Yellow:
A color that designated
Jews as the other, unworthy of living
a symbol of evil.

Yellow:
A color only
the emperor of China was allowed to wear
the living embodiment of the sun.

Yellow:
The third color in an Mondrian painting,
the brilliance of Van Goghs flowers,
Frida Kahlo’s dresses.

Sunflower yellow
That dazzles bees and dragonflies
a show-off color that hides
darkness inside.




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