Two poems by Patricia Carragon

Picture of Life

A painting’s still in progress –
Parisian life
numbered for color.
People sit at an outdoor café,
sip wine
between conversations.
A man delivers his wares
in an ancient
but sturdy wagon
as long as his horse
can be of service.

But the artist
didn’t finish her piece.
Instead,
she allowed age
to paint the edges,
kept some areas
devoid of color.
Inside her dented box,
capsules have lost their oil.
Brushes lie unwashed,
too brittle for use –
inertia lives in the dust.
I wonder why,
but the artist isn’t here
to answer.

===================

Beauty

in a shutter’s blink
she became ugly
distortion saw her as art


Editor's note: "Picture of Life" was published in the The Culvert Chronicles, July 16 - 22, 2009

Author bio:

Patricia Carragon is a New York City writer and poet. Her publications include Poetz.com, Rogue Scholars, Poets Wear Prada, Best Poem, BigCityLit, CLWN WR, Chantarelle’s Notebook, Clockwise Cat, Ditch Poetry, MÖBIUS, The Poetry Magazine, The Toronto Quarterly, Marymark Press, Maintenant, Mad Hatters’ Review and more. She is the author of Journey to the Center of My Mind (Rogue Scholars Press). She is a member of Brevitas, a group dedicated to short poems. She hosts and curates the Brooklyn-based Brownstone Poets and is the editor of the annual anthology. Her new book is Urban Haiku and More (Fierce Grace Press, 2010). For more information, please check out her Web sites at Brownstone Poets and at Patricia Carragon.