unsigned painting: artist unknown
To the Artist of the Unsigned Painting
by Donna K. Pflueger
Why didn’t you counsel
the drunken fence
before it stumbled
along to escape this weary frame?
Or mend the livestock
pen and fill it
with full-bellied
goats? Your farmhouse is dying
as planks of
rough-hewn wood splinter,
age to thirsty gray
while blooms of crab apple trees
feed on the roof, smother
windows and block
the pallid light from
a sky that has given up
its clouds. Not one coneflower shivers
in the breeze to
spread its seed; no child’s
playful step imprints
upon the bluestem grass.
You plant
after-thoughts of a life in stern soil:
father, son, farmhand,
their faces hiding
behind wide-brimmed
hats as they slouch
their shoulders. You leave their feet unseen
like shackled roots of
a past that cannot be freed.
Ah, but the woman with
broad brown cheekbones,
hair the hue of
wisdom, her legs spread wide
beneath a long skirt.
She sits upon a bench and watches
as you drape a blue
shawl over her shoulders,
and with your final
brushstroke,
you grace her with a
smile.
~ first published in Mobius, The Poetry Magazine
