George Franklin

George Franklin practices law in Miami and teaches writing workshops in Florida state prisons. His poems have appeared in Salamander, The Wild Word, B O D Y, Matter, Scalawag, Gulf Stream, Rascal, Amsterdam Quarterly, Twyckenham Notes, The Threepenny Review, Cagibi,  armarolla, and elsewhere. A bi-lingual edition of his poems, with Spanish translations by Ximena Gomez, was recently published by Katakana Editores. Traveling for No Good Reason was the winner of Sheila-Na-Gig Editions 2018 Full-length Manuscript Contest: https://sheilanagigblog.com/sheila-na-gig-editions/

Crivelli’s Madonna and Child

The world is just as beautiful as it’s hurt.
A fly’s landed next to the child, the stone is cracked.
Poised on a cushion and yellow cloth, alert,
Bird clutched to heart, he observes but doesn’t act.

A fly’s landed next to the child, the stone is cracked,
A knobby gourd, ripe apples shade the skies.
Bird clutched to heart, he observes but doesn’t act.
The world is broken marble; we are flies.

A knobby gourd, ripe apples shade the skies,
Mauve silk and branches held by nothing seen.
The world is broken marble; we are flies.
Behind him is the orchard’s endless green.

Mauve silk and branches held by nothing seen,
Poised on a cushion and yellow cloth, alert,
Behind him is the orchard’s endless green.
The world is just as beautiful as it’s hurt.