Sometimes I post my poetry here on my blog. I still have the painting mentioned in this poem, which is I am showing here.
The Poet’s Wife
The poet’s tiny wife suffered from the cold.
I gave her my fiancé’s Chinese jacket,
It fit her but could not obscure her homeliness—
none of the owner’s beauty transferred to her.
During the studio sessions for her portrait
the poet’s wife said, “The day I met the poet,
I cried on the museum steps knowing I would marry the stranger.
I didn’t want to divorce my husband and abandon my children.”
But that’s what she did.
When I finished her portrait,
She said, “I didn’t think you could pull it off but you did.”
I hung the portrait at Life Café at 10th and Ave B.
Dancing at the frozen bar on Saint Mark’s Place,
She said, “Keep your hands out of your pockets the next time you dance.”
Im in tears! Good painting.