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STILL LIFE WITH TWELVE SUNFLOWERS, AFTER SCROLLING

Hezekiah Louie R. Zaraspe
By Hezekiah Louie R. Zaraspe
Visual by Jimbo Albano

Van Gogh’s sunflowers  —

all twelve of them  —

so lively, lush,

standing, bending;

they do not submit

to ikebana’s poise

and posture —

golden — no — bronze —

beautiful yet strange.

I am certain

this is the color

of grief thick as impasto,

of desire leaping

like a gazelle,

beyond the canvas’s frame —

wedged in the folds

of saffron —

of smiles and laughter.

Outside, the rain

has ceased.

The sky,

topaz.

The soil ready

for sowing.

I clap my laptop shut,

murmur:

Art is—

Life is—

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hezekiah Louie R. Zaraspe
Hezekiah Louie R. Zaraspe
Hezekiah Louie Zaraspe, 29, teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and De La Salle University (DLSU). He holds a Bachelor of Secondary Education, major in English, and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from UST. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in English and Filipino have been featured in Inquirer.net, Rappler, Liwayway Magazine, and Locked Down, Lit Up: An Anthology of Creative Work in a Time of Quarantine (UP Press), among others. He was a fellow of the 2022 UST National Writers' Workshop.

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