Fire from the Valley
Your sonogram, the picture of song
in a lonely room.
A ghost with two thumbs up.
Or Edvard Munch’s famous work
as a lithograph—
We seem, your mother and I,
silhouettes to the left on that ink bridge
staring off at the faint ships.
We bring your printed image
home to post on our fridge.
In your open mouth, in the grey
sockets of your eyes, we cannot discern
fear or joy, yawn or yawp. But the sun
will set maybe a hundred times
or more, when the colors you’ve heard
will arrive like fire from the valley
and you will taste sweet acid of an orange
evening, cede to the crimson of nipple,
the rush of milk, and tune to the blue
hills, painted like lines of notes
against a starry night. You will lie
on your back with barely strength at all,
and scream to us the song—draw us
from the rail of Edvard’s bridge, still fjords
below, each of us an echo of heat and bone.
Song: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2
Art by Vivian Calderón Bogoslavsky
Vivian Calderón Bogoslavsky is a Colombia Native. She holds a bachelors in anthropology with a minor in history and a postgraduate degree in journalism from Universidad of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. She has studied art for over 13 years with a well-know, Argentinian art master, as well as studies in Florence, Italy, and Fine Arts & Design in the USA. Today, she works in Colombia exploring her art. Vivian has shown her work in both individual and collective shows in Colombia, the USA and Spain. She has been published in various books, magazines and webpages, and has received multiples awards.
Dan Murphy lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters. He earned his MFA from Boston University and teaches writing at Suffolk University. His work has been published in Sugar House Review, The Adirondack Review, Panhandler Magazine, and elsewhere.
