Provisions for the Soul
by Daniel Bachhuber
In Memoriam, Frank Gross
You lead me to an abstract by Ruffino Tamayo—
orange, yellow, burgundy
piled and lessened where it has to be,
a benevolence of light that nourishes me.
Here, it is enough to amplify
provisions for the soul, to express—
the mix of sand, flowers
and copper filings Tamayo bakes
in imagination before grinding them blue;
lumps of ochre or precious cinnabar
crushed into extracts
and raised on a sail
against a white sky.