The Ink Well Spilled
After "The Pink Studio" (1911) by Henri Matisse

Because lunchtime had long since passed; Because summer light moved across tinted windows until the green urn fell into shadows near the blue brocade where gilded flowers climbed around a body loosely sketched; because the changing screen was carved with single-stemmed pink roses that gazed at the mauve carpet beneath stacks of abstract nudes near the yellow floor crossed with blue that marked the spot next to the long bench with a green velvet cushion where the model had posed all morning: the Pushkin Museum in Moscow closed all color behind oak doors.

—Lisa Mase

Lisa Mase is a lover of earth's changing tides. She is a nutritionist, folk herbalist, translator, and poet homesteading with her family in Central Vermont. Her poems have most recently been published by Silver Needle Press, Press 53, the Long Island Review, and the Dandelion Review.