A Trip to the Supermarket (Poetry Marathon 2022 Hour 3)

Painting within the lines
Finding the right ruler to measure
With colors found in nature
Coloring in by numbers
Painting becomes a number game
Superrealism superimposed on reaslism
My hand shakes with anticipation
And slips across the page
And all thought of accuracy evaporates
So you can see from the evidence
Of page after page found in the garbage
I cannot draw
I have a camera

Still life photos
Downloaded to our computers
We run them through
Programs to saturate them with colors
My favorite photo is a weeping willow
In a meadow near the desert
Where the extreme heat
Creates vivid waves
Upon a clear background
My favorite color is a hue of purple
Not found in nature
The extreme sun washes out
Any hope of shadow
I choose no shadow
In the box
I choose no wind
In the box
I choose no people
In the box
The meadow is barren
Life is still
Purple fills the box
I draw in some hills
And some clouds
The sky is a contrasting green
More green
Contrasts well with the purple tree leaves
And pinkish meadow
I do not draw within the lines
I do not choose colors found in nature
I am not very good with instructions generally
But yes I am on my way to buy groceries
In the same supermarket
Where housewives go with their shopping lists
And husbands go with their cell phones
To ask if that is what you mean
But I would rather take my camera
And take pictures of Campbell soup cans
And saturate the colors to purple and green
Until the photo becomes indistinguishable
From a lonely purple tree flowering purple in a meadow
Within a still life of pinkish weeds, under a green sky