Paint Job

By Marc Darnell

I painted still lifes-- peonies and roses,

until a romance blossomed, and I stepped

into that ring of marriage when I stopped

painting all together, tying laces,

giving dinner parties, drying eyes

that teared as Roger's words cut like a whip

when Mia spilled some juice or almost slipped

from running in the house, and so I chose

to paint him from my life, it wasn't easy--

his colors bled back in the more I matted

out his lies that he would treat us better.

Clear of him at last, some memory

of him remains in blooms I've newly painted--

those necessary shadows, blurred but bitter.

_______________________________________

Marc Darnell is an online tutor and lead custodian in Omaha NE.  He received his MFA from the University of Iowa, and has published poems in The Lyric, Rue Scribe, Verse, Skidrow Penthouse, Shot Glass Journal, The HyperTexts, Candelabrum, The Road Not Taken, Aries, Ship of Fools, Open Minds Quarterly, The Fib Review, and elsewhere.  His latest book is Forecast: Increasing Visibility from Kelsay Books.  He has 3 times been awarded the Academy of American Poets prize.