She WAS beautiful...

Today's Sitter

Perhaps she wasn't beautiful,

Today's sitter, in the patterned hippie dress
my husband, who prides himself on his eye for that sort of thing, thought not.
But I was fascinated by her nonetheless
by her boyish half sentences
and her frizzy hair.
She smelled of smoke.
A pity, I thought
it will one day wreck havoc on all that translucent skin,
then maybe the lines on her face will match it's wizened expression.
She was going to Thailand,
or Vietnam.
Or one of those places young people go nowadays
instead of France.
Perhaps she wasn’t beautiful,
but I prefer her to the photogenic blond from last week
with the carefully applied make-up and the complacent smile.

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(I started this painting and later wrote the poem in the hopes of retrofitting it to work for a juried exhibit of "art based on poetry". Sadly, I was unable to finish the painting in time to enter. (This photo only shows the finished part - it's full length but the bottom still a sketch.) From what I could tell jurist was a thoroughly modern gal so it may have all been for the best anyway. Who knows if she'd have chosen a portrait. And a rejection would have crushed my soul.

To date I have entered two other juried shows. In the first I won an award for painting of my dear hubby. The second was a show of children's art and I was rejected. Yes, my soul was crushed... )