R.L. Neviska
Portrait Of A Painter
In Memory of Jake Adam York

I - American Gothic

He spoke in a voice

that asked a question

with no answer

There may be two,

but you decide which you are.

His words are

Grant Wood’s brushstrokes

that beg for apostrophes

and stories of Chocolate Bones.

II - Dogs Playing Poker

I spent too long

paying a goddess

of iced coffee

and pretending my knees

were tin foil.

eyes like questions

frame the blurred motion

of a self-portrait

in muted color

“Ceci n’est pas une pipe.”

III - Starry Night Over the Rhone

“What’s your favorite?” He asks.

IV- Water Lillies

The signature faint

below dappled pastels

and 49 years

that will never exist.

He tapes luminescent wings

on the back of the moon.

V - Crossing the Delaware

He leans on the cusp,

the beast opening his jaw,

the night is closing in

when you paint a smile on your lips.

and behind that Mona Lisa gaze,

I don’t tell you that

both of them are me.