Photograph by Alison Deland Scott
defines shape by not being there
and I’m trying to paint the space
between buildings, tree branches,
under a clothesline or a table, fog
between here and across the lake
with Light Violet, Payne’s Gray,
a touch of Cadmium Red, Titanium White
and maybe Hooker’s Green so I can
put down exact shapes and outlines
defined by what looks like emptiness
like the space inside me, the private
monochrome that defines my days
with housework, paperwork, workwork.
If I stop I am inside that emptiness again,
shapeless in the silence
I have not chosen,
Prussian Blue, deep and dark,
the color of absence.
Smoky Quartz 