Artist’s Critique

Heavy-handed strokes
Punctuate this piece.
Model subject blunders into
Careless technique.
Shades, silence, shadows
And such—conceal flaws
From intemperate brush.
Ornate design accentuates
Fragile frame.
Smoldering canvas abrasions
Obscured from eyes untrained.
Artist’s final touch—seal of
Satan’s kiss—fine pink mist—a
Tragic masterpiece complete.
Damn the muse who sent Artist
My way—
To hell with the artist who
Killed me today.

Yolanda is a poet who lives, along with her wife and three dogs, in Texas. Some of her work has appeared in Poets Unlimited, Be Yourself, and Script: A Journal of Literature and Art. She is passionate about the Ghazal form (as the late Jim Harrison interpreted it).