Taste of Pastel

sliced sunlight
appears at my door: its eyes
are like fire crystals, its voice
like the crackle of pyres

the watercolor people
say they can see me—
they say my words aren’t just
vaporous gibberish but i
do not know
what really sparks behind their eyes

i am trying to forget who i was
i am trying to become
the blood of volcanos
the skin of stars
the flesh of flames

when i eat dawns i lick
their purplish dust off my thumb
and swallow their yellow halos

they taste so soft
they taste like my memories

 

“Sparkling Sands” © Dr. Regina Valluzzi

 

Monica Beaujon is a college student, majoring in English, at the University of Wisconsin. My poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the magazines Viewfinder, Germ and Lady.

Art can illuminate even the most elusive and difficult to comprehend ideas. Visual rules and tightly codified visual metaphors help scientists communicate complex ideas mostly amongst themselves, but they can also become barriers to new ideas and insights. Dr. Regina Valluzzi’s images are abstracted and diverged from the typical rules and symbols of scientific illustration and visualization; they provide an accessible window into the world of science for both scientists and non-scientists.