COMPLETION
Depth started to throb -Jori Graham
The painting sits upright
against the file cabinet
almost completed; it can’t
find the place of finish, a space
where things are allowed to end.
No studio for it to be done
signed and touched no more
with thoughts of brush.
It needs a tiny woman
walking away from the viewer
with her tiny black dog no larger
than a leaf/just a stain of black
will bring it to life.
But no proper space avails
to allow it a final shape
a completion.
The smaller trees in back
then larger and still larger
masses of green, mottled trunks in front
stand alone beside one another;
they smell the loneliness.
Cezanne can’t find his own footing
his easel or canvas stand.
The asphalt path ribbed
with shadows of trees we cannot see
because the woman and her dog
have long passed
yet remain unpainted.
They want to be there, content to stroll
as they do in the photograph I paint from.
Some license, surely, but not them
they are not incidental to the life of trees.
I want to see them—after they are painted in
two figures to ease the gap of loss in depth.
When the painting is framed and hung
on the living room wall, I want to see
them enjoying the trees
I painted for their delight as they stroll
by and through the lushness of green.
I will wave to their tiny shapes
meandering on the path, their
backs to me getting smaller
her dog sniffing a red wildflower
unaware I am behind them
happily waving at their beauty.
They continue to diminish
as do I to them
in my blue shirt, like hers
now almost
the same size.
©2017 Completion Dennis Patrick Slattery
http://www.dennispslattery.com/
All Rights Reserved
©2017 Completion Dennis Patrick Slattery
http://www.dennispslattery.com/
All Rights Reserved
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