El Pintor
After the watercolor by Amado Peña, 1983
The painter is secluded
Yet accompanied
By los fantasmas
Phantoms who inhabit
Pueblo sun-dried bricks
From a thousand years
Assist the artist with
Canvass mutterings
To guide brush hairs through
Turquoise and ochre
Lucid as sky above land
In contemplación
Between living and dead
This plain shared together
In adobe corridors
By Red Willow People
Still painting in flesh
Around bones of yesterday
Their sombreros above time
Unhurried as specters
Woman With Oranges
After the painting by RC Gorman, 1983
A Navojo woman is
Confounded by fruit
That leaves when she exits
And appears when she arrives
Usually half-dozen
At home or anywhere else
Their shadows in ripe sun
Ready to be eaten
But gone upon puncture
Their petite goodbye
On the heals of another
Manifestation
For her quizzical look
At silent companions
Consuming her time
As if expecting her
To make spherical sense
Of friendly still life
Dane Karnick grew up by the Colorado “Rockies” and lives near Seattle. His poetry recently appeared in Treehouse Arts, Scarlet Leaf, riverrun and Gravel. Visit him at www.danekarnick.com.
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