Paint a Picture Black and Gray

Pull out the easel
   set the canvas 
    positioned long and slender clean slate.
Sketch the figures huddled and dark-bound hostage
   to charcoal-cooled coals 
    etching in shadow images;
Faceless entities 
   slipping in and out the background
    earth-toned sojourners accepting, alone, quiet, dying;
Still the images in silence
   hard and disfigured 
    grotesque horrors in place;
Somber soul-drained eyes 
   skeletal socket holes 
     buried in the heart and mind;
Let tears fall down their cheeks
   in wonder, awe, and 
     fear of what happens next.
Acrylic primers dilute the wash in the storyline
   flaking and cracking 
    tearing each soul and truth away;
Polyptych blended burnish bleeds 
   quiet, soft exuding 
    whimpered cries, asking why;
Chiaroscuro collages of death from life
   fading to diluent breaths 
    the heartbeat of an unholy  silence;
Graded gouache monochrome scraper boards
  releasing sfumatos of singularities
   communal lives sacrificed
Varnish the final rendition
  camouflage the realities,
  the actuality of what it represents,
Time immemorial in genocidal atrocities
  of Native Americans, Cambodians, Hawaiians, 
     Jews, Rwandans, Bosnia, Darfur,.
When does it stop?
  The never-ending list 
   life is more precious than this
      until change comes
Paint the Picture Black and Gray
      pray 
        then act.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2016


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Date: 4/5/2021 7:54:00 AM
DM, Your touch of shadows in color danced off the page and into my heart. Well conceived, well lived, and well finished. -Richard
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Date: 5/13/2020 1:52:00 PM
Wow ~great appeal to the artists in your readers then... the parallel to the genecides is mindblowing. Bravo ~
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Date: 10/31/2016 10:45:00 PM
This poem is unique in every which way. There can never be an equal to it. It's simply splendid! Going in my fav list.
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Date: 10/17/2016 8:29:00 PM
This sensitive subject was not easy to write a worthy poem, but the way you 'sketched' your idea, was so unique, and beautifully written. What a wonderful way to handle this contest! Well done!
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Date: 10/17/2016 5:45:00 PM
The imagery of the sketching is fabulous , DM, congratulations on your win. Hugs Eve
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Date: 10/17/2016 12:23:00 PM
So true. Only love can turn the dismal to a beautiful work of art! Great job!
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Date: 10/12/2016 1:17:00 PM
Not to mention the Chaldeans (Iraqi Christians), I find it interesting and correct that you refer to all of these acts as "the Holocaust". Well expressed, although I needed a dictionary to get through it, a great read. Thank you...
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Date: 10/12/2016 7:52:00 AM
Excellent imagery, it comes alive on the page, although, a sad rendition.
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Date: 10/11/2016 11:19:00 PM
A very moving piece. Well expressed.
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