In the Mural

Amy Klein 

The sepia boy replaced
our street with another,

painted the sign white,
thought of the new name.

I walked down the wet cobblestone
without knowing

it was almost
here, everything un-

imaginable ‘til
it was already gone.

All I could do was turn
ahead to that new word, to its

inkling
Summit or Greenhill

Road, and then to the place
beyond it

where these many rainy
seasons blended

into a mist
that lifted.

And there we were: two
wet flowers, purple and blue

where beauty like a rain had beaten us
so softly we could not even see

ourselves changing,
as the cup does not notice

the water until
it is full of flowers, too.

Understanding far
ahead of us, somehow,

we painted
in old love, a new refuge.

--

Amy Klein is a writer and musician living in Brooklyn. She is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize from Harvard. She is currently at work on her first manuscript, which she workshopped with many amazing classmates and inspirational teachers at the 92 Street Y.

Betsy Bonner has selected “In the Mural” as the runner up for the 2015 Rachel Wetzsteon Poetry Prize. She writes: “Its painterly imagery tempers mystery with revelation. ‘Beauty like a rain had beaten us / so softly we could not even see / ourselves changing.’ Love erases everything we thought we knew.”