from THE WOMAN IN AN IMAGINARY PAINTING

She would say:
Don’t make more
of this than

it is. This
is art, not
theology.

This is not
a star
burning out

at the far
edge of the
universe.

This is not
death by
hanging.

Look at me
and love me,
she would say.

Enjoy the
delight of
light, of shape

and color.
Enjoy the
suggestion

I am much
more than
pigment.

Tom Montag’s books of poetry include: Making Hay & Other Poems; Middle Ground; The Big Book of Ben Zen; In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013; This Wrecked World; The Miles No One Wants; Imagination’s Place; Love Poems; and Seventy at Seventy. His poem ‘Lecturing My Daughter in Her First Fall Rain’ has been permanently incorporated into the design of the Milwaukee Convention Center. He blogs at The Middlewesterner. With David Graham he recently co-edited Local News: Poetry About Small Towns.