October 2024
Tom Montag
theoldmonk85@gmail.com
Author's Note: The woman in the imaginary painting helps me to grapple with what is "real" and what is not, with what ought to be but isn't. Frankly, I still don't know where the central image of this series arises from; I don't know why she poses for me the way she did for the imaginary painter who painted her. Still, as her poet, I feel obliged to show this world the world she inhabits.

This woman

This woman
in the painting is

hardly more
than a girl,

hardly more
than some light,

or a curve
of color,

the shape
of something

wanting
to be held.

If there were

If there were
a window, if

we could see
out of it, if

the garden is
flowering in

full sun, would
we notice

that she has
blushed, that she

seems to love
us, that her

silence says
more than words?

©2024 Tom Montag
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