The Portrait Artist 2016

The Portrait Artist
2016

Lightning strokes
within my familiar grid.
Erase
again,
erase and sketch
moving pencil
against my light.

Capture her values
within the portrait painter’s
code--
Asian vase
Dutch tulips
Satin and English lace
to please a patron father
and husband by
whose name she’s
known
forever.

A dress, lace
tulips, vase
these are props
of Plymouth, Massachusetts
rich and famous
1765.

But what of
Mrs. George Watson’s face?

Her gaze is not
an apathetic
patrician stare.

Mrs. Watson
dares me to find her
a new American woman--
direct
purposeful
unafraid
of the revolution
that births
our nation.

Mrs. Watson and her
portrait artist
share lessons with my
fingers and my soul
no history textbook
could impart.