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| “Parakeet” by Kees van Dongen,ca. 1910, oil on canvas, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts |
Still life day 28
here in Vermont
a solitary junco
half black
half white
sitting on the branch
half white
half black
against a backdrop of pond
black—rimmed with white—
thank goodness for
the small red barn
in the lower right corner
of the scene
I imagine painting
over this canvas
apple blossoms
puffy clouds a woman
in the foreground
faded yellow robe
leaning out her second
story window
to hang blue towels
and flowered sheets
on one end of a
never-vanishing cord
that travels from this hillside
to Milan then Barcelona
Wuhan Jerusalem Sydney
Seattle New Orleans New York
An endless clothesline
adorned with the fabric
of the world billowing
outwards music spilling
from all those unshuttered
windows wafts of coffee
baked bread squeals of children
running down hallways
pinging marbles on bare floors
dogs barking
I imagine painting
parakeets in wooden cages
singing while we wait
Brooke Herter James is a poet and children’s book author living in Vermont.
