The landscape of Mark Rothko's childhood

The proximity of trees to a hut

A hut on a plain, or a hut among trees;
wood planks vertical or horizontal—

(it matters). Red hut among pine trees;
green hut on red earth, two yellow flags.

A light blue-green hut, two windows
(absurdly close) with nets; a white birch

rising, touches the hut with a fan of young
branches. (Off-scene, a van, tractor, tracks,

gravel, wires). A door propped open with
a pole, an orange rake by a closed door,

or the door cannot be seen. Turn the hut
upside down: see how sky pulls the trees

up, how lithe are the trees, how delicately
balanced the leaves (feathers) on the grass.

Kay Syrad

Bunker

Above the horizon, blue, indigo:
principle of dark; below,

a concrete hut with slot-mouth
lists in a river of stones.

At the slot’s lip, a white stain
(chalk or light) draws attention

to lichen. The drift and spread
of stones around the hut suggests

bluff, a reckless casting, while
a felted black in the foreground

cries out for end, the gone of it, cries
out to the black-hatted priest beyond.

Kay Syrad