For Cornflowers to Sing

Blue must be stolen.

There must be purple

plums, cherries, telling us

blue insists on the flower.

The silence of the jar

must be the centre

which grows the painting

Unlatches stillness,

resists composition,

detonates the seasons.

For cornflowers to sing

each line must scar

its making.

There must be light

and the idea of a window.

In each fold of creamy linen,

blue corners

crouching under the table.

For cornflowers to sing

they must be fallen.

Blue slalom.

White grave of the table.

Susan Fealy

‘For Cornflowers to Sing’ is a response to Brett
Whiteley’s Still Life with Cornflowers. The title is
an adaptation of ‘for the cornflowers / to sing . . .’
from ‘Cornflowers’ by Robert Adamson.