Renoir’s Yarn

by Andrea Potos

Art Institute of Chicago

You won’t find a painting of his
with that title, only one corner
of a painting: the little sister on the terrace,
her flower-laden hat mirroring bright
cheeks and eyes, her hand on a bowl
that holds balls of yarn tumbling out.
Inside these brushstrokes, they might be
fruit, or even flowers.
Here in the gallery where
I lean inches away before
the museum guide chides me too close,
I see skeins of fiber: salmon rose,
dusk-tinged purple, deep forest green–
all of them spun and still spinning
with filaments of unstoppable light.

ANDREA POTOS is the author of eight collections of poems, most recently A Stone to Carry Home (Salmon Poetry) and Arrows of Light (Iris Press). Three of her books have been awarded Outstanding Achievement in Poetry from the Wisconsin Library Association, and she received the 2016 William Stafford Award in Poetry. This poem is contained in her collection of poems entitled Mothershell  (Kelsay Books). Her poems can be found widely in print and online.

Featured Image: Two Sisters (On the Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir