Poem

I regularly post artwork from our Picturing America portfolio. In fact, our Lobby display case features two works right now.

But they also always lure me to writing; as Sargent's Portrait of Boy did today.

How unsubstantial are so many
of the marks you made
to make this boy.

He is nearly not here
within the moment;
conjured by so little
(as we all might be).

Barely, the width of brushstrokes
hold, like wings,
his flight of years, just so.

You must have seen
the passing of it all,
felt the swirl of his turning

and yet caught him, sat him,
kept him in a place I cannot have -
a boy throughout eternity.