Every other year, Women in the Visual and Literary Arts (WiVLA) hosts a member event, known as a Collaboration. In it, writers and artists team up to create a fresh product that is more than the sum of its parts. This was my third Collaboration since joining WiVLA in 2016. In 2018, I had a difficult time finding a partner and started having flashbacks of Middle School PE class, where I was often the last one chosen for a team. I finally tentatively approached someone who I barely knew. She didn’t yet have a partner and seemed as relieved as I was to form a team. Because we were comfortable with each other, we teamed up again in 2020.
But this year, determined to break out of my comfort zone, I approached a WiVLA member whose poetry had touched me. I was relieved when Celeste agreed to join me. Although I tossed her a couple of curves during our creative journey, I’m proud of where we landed. It is with that pride that I share our final pieces in response to the theme: REFLECTION.
“Exposed,” by Celeste Budwit-Hunter
After the rain, a pond. A tree
attracts the dust of stars.
In universal play, dragonflies
dance to songs of twilight.
Captured, I fall through a portal
Suspended
In vastness—
Back before the beginning.
Before name and form,
Two dimensions become four.
A child dreams of trees.
On the other side,
blue jays call to each other
in the language of now.
Coincidentally, Celeste and I share similar backgrounds. I worked as a technical writer for the better part of 30 years and Celeste currently works at Johnson Space Center as a technical editor for flight operations. If her name seems familiar, it’s because she also authored the ekphrastic response to my Rest Stop image.