Barefoot girls sit cross-legged
against the arch in Washington Square Park
chatting
on a crisp spring day
when the entire world
fits neatly into the pockets of their embroidered jeans
Their hopes, still intact,
like golden-crusted rhubarb pie
cooling by the kitchen window
Somewhere in Leiden
an old woman’s gnarly feet shuffle
on an amber road that intersects
with dusk and dawn
Time has become finite—
simpler
more immediate
She steps out of her shoes
curls her toes into deep green blades of grass
cool with dew
In the background,
colors soften into apricot sky
Yellow tulips and traffic lights
dot the canvases
and exclaim “Pay Attention”
and the soles of staffage feet
connect them
through pavement and earth
Phillipa Scott is a writer, painter and native New Yorker. She has worked many corporate jobs to pay the rent. Her work has appeared in SLANT, Ragazine, Paterson Literary Review, Tipton Poetry Journal and is forthcoming in Exit 13 Magazine and Soul-Lit. Phillipa is the winner of an Allen Ginsberg Award in Poetry. Her paintings are displayed in homes and galleries in New York and New Jersey.
