Doug McHargue's "Survivor" after Connie Bostic

Doug McHargue photographed at the October 13, 2018 tour of Hickory Museum of Art sharing her poem inspired by Connie Bostic.

SURVIVOR

by Doug McHargue

after Fit: Brownie by Connie Bostic

The artist has caught me

in days of pink resilience,

there’s nothing organdy starched

statue thick couldn’t solve,

when we still were parades

past statues, in shoes

that matched, Peter Pan

collar tidy lines tying

loose ends.

And there’s the Brownie, my first

camera to keep the world

of backyard kittens, overflowing

skinny inbreds drawn like

the chicken to cross the road

in the dark of night,

me, held together

with pattern pieces

of tissue, and skin,

ephemeral cloth.