Inspiration for the Iris Collection...
In Her Green Dress, She Is
By Sujata Bhatt
(1905) In her green dress, she is the background and the foreground - A green dress the colour of iris stems, the ones in the background - A green dress the colour of iris stems against grass - Green on green on green - She is the foreground and the background - Her face intent because she's listening to a bird in the distance - a single bird - persistent - calling again and again - Its song slit, cleft - rising and falling and rising again through the stillness. Its song clinging to the leaves - A melody that must have moved Bach - Her face intent because irises have flung themselves open in the heat: Blue petals arched like so many little blue tongues tasting the air - Those yellow hearts cannot hide anymore. Even the black stones, the oval shaped black stones of her necklace can see you It is June: Full of Humid Shadows, purple clouds - it will rain in an hour. The irises will sway in the wind - a few stems will get bent by the rain - broken - and her green dress will get drenched along with the grass where the stems will lie broken - But she will walk away laughing - she will walk slowly lingering in the green wetness |