Art Gallery Dream Crash

after Jacob Hashimoto, “The Other Sun”

Lucy Jones

I tried to say something shiny 
and true and rare 
a bubble that would ensnare you like 
those little elite secrets about art 
that you know, that you have to read articles to know about 
that only exist for people who wear glasses like you 
and me, always standing a ways apart 

You explained the piece 
in front of its plaque that said it better 
meanwhile I hadn’t eaten, 
the whirling discs made me dizzy and I thought 
of many multicolored promises, and cars  

And how last night we crashed in my dream 
the bus that braked too late 
heaven avalanched in a hydrangea of wheels 
spinning out the sky 
but you were still talking about color theory when I woke 

Gold falls all over itself in the background 
It is drunk and stumbling on the wall 
like you the week before the tires over snow 
like you in the presence of too much beauty 
the swirly ceilings in the old fancy hotel 

But what does that matter 
when your two eyes that are always yawning 
stir to follow the blonde-haired girl who floats unconcerned 
between us and the piece 
what is the exhibit 
when she is the streak 
of white and the plate of gold, 
the focal point, 
the whole scene 

Lucy Jones is a senior English/ French double major from Memphis, TN.