Waterscape – Ray Ball

Mama brushes
     watercolor onto paper

Two remembrances of trees
     each like a beaten reed,
the way a scroll 

     embraces prayers
for the dead    She is painting
     the beach at Corpus Christi,
strokes of blue and gray

where the clouds and water
     meet   Pebbles, crushed shells,
and driftwood rest amidst white foam

     She reflects a child’s
toy dump truck momentarily abandoned
     in the receding water

God’s body is everywhere—
     each gull’s beak and feathers,
each wave crashing ashore,
     each particle of sand,
each molecule of paint

Ray Ball is the author of the chapbooks Tithe of Salt (Louisiana Literature, 2019) and Lararium (Variant Lit, 2020) and an editor at Coffin Bell and Juke Joint. Her poems and flash fiction have appeared in descant, Ellipsis Zine, Glass, Waccamaw, and elsewhere.