SELF-PORTRAIT IN A LACEMAKER’S HANDS

The lacemaker’s thread looks as if Jackson Polloack snuck 

into this gallery of varnished Dutch masters,

pulled the canvas off the wall,

laid it casually on the floor

climbed his rickety wooden ladder

leaned over precariously and gleefully

dripped red and white paint.

But these paint drips were Vermeer’s –

flowing, liquid red and white thread

vivid against the painting’s blank background,

the softly blurred lacemaker’s face and body.

The painting’s focal point: the artist’s hands

in the act of creation

transforming these paint drip threads

so alive and squirming into image.

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Robert Miner is a Midwest poet relocated to Houston, Tex.. Recent work has or soon will be featured in The Brussels Review, Carmina Magazine, Jerry Jazz Magazine, Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry), Subliminal Surgery, Ribbons and Laurels. Follow him @robertminerpoetry on Instagram.