Zinnias, proud and full.
Tender spine pressed flat,
leather scrunched and
well-loved, pages in
bloom. Nose dipped toward
thread-lined centers, pulling
taunt. Anticipating.
Letters tickling, sneezes
sending the nearest trailing
thought askew. Hair tricks
as golden, mimicking sunbeams;
the ink, though long dried,
stains tips of fingers, licked
for flicking pages; dandelion
stains on ends of noses
gives away moments
of dreams possessing
mid-flutter of spring
blooms and soft murmurs
between beats of eyelashes,
prophesying in whispers,
summer.
— Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Child Reading (Enfant lisant)” Early 1890s. Oil on canvas. On display at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA.
Bailey Quinn is an interdisciplinary writer and artist from Middlebury, Connecticut, where she grew up and now serves as its first Poet Laureate. While earning her bachelor’s degree in English from Villanova University, she served as a staff writer for The Villanovan. She is also a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course. Bailey’s creative work has been published in Breath & Shadow; The Creekside Magazine; Villanova’s literary magazine, Ellipsis; and more. Bailey loves the music of Sammy Rae and the Friends, divulging trivia about Gilmore Girls, and buying more books than she can fit in her bookshelf.
