The Women Descants

After Her Divorce

After her divorce…
she lived with paintings
rented month to month…
much like borrowed books
or casual acquaintance.
She bought flowers freshly cut,
not plants…for she wouldstay
distant from commitment.

Leased one vaguely abstract
yellow peach green blue
March to June…still with
no long-term contract,
and no binding promise…
she placed it on a bedroom
wall to cover gouges there.

March…day and day after,
all seeming arbitrary,
drew her in the night to
Rorschach introspection
ofthat painting’s certitude,

untilone April morning
when sunshine lit it golden…
she sensed tumblers fall
withinassurancelocks.

She patchedthebedroom wall in May,
moved that painting to her den
to hang itwhere it would not fade.
In June shebought the thing.

Bonnie Marshall

Artworkby Maeve Harris

not graffiti prone

handprintsonfresh paint
impetuousgesture
my handprints onfresh paint…
why not use aerosol
to claim that wall…
thenI reflect
that women are not
graffiti prone

whereis theirfire