Portrait

Paint me blue like the sky rainbow's smile; thunder's cry clouded curtains rife with rain till shroud is lanced and bluebirds fly again Wistful moods in mahogany frames melancholy painters with undiscovered names rearrange reveries in pastel hues decorating lonely walls with brooding blues Paint me emerald like the sea feeling caged; rolling free stormy rage; morning calm who knows where swelling waves come from? Which shades best record a personality? Which side of the coin is preserved for history? Shall I smile or appear dignified? Do I show my true self, or try to hide? Paint me tawny like a lark as the sky dissolves to dark flying free but not for long a gloomy gloaming swallows up its song What do you see as I hold this pose? Will you reveal or conceal my imperfect nose? Will you paint scars and wrinkles or leave no trace? Will your biography in oils show lines on my face? Paint me crystalline like a wine glass for you somehow see right through the paintbrush captures the epidermis but the painter overlays the spirit Superimposing your style, passions, heartbreaks, joie de vivre onto my facets, form, features, and flaws with love, you labor on transforming my brief life into a lasting work of art Paint me gold like a sunrise as it marks the dark's demise background wash of faith, hope, love; the colors life's palette is made of. When bones are one with graveyard soils these memories preserved in oils are saved for those who later come that they may know where they've come from written 1 Sep 2022 ...with gratitude for all the inspired artists who carry forward the grand tradition of portraiture.