Activating Canvases
This, then, just before five a.m.—
Like confectioner's sugar
sifted lightly on gingerbread,
a dusting of snow on the ground.
I am the first
to walk my street.
Well, the first in shoes.
Unobserved earlier, a rabbit
has tracked up the gessoed canvas
of our driveway to
pass between the corner
of the garage and the corner
of the back deck.
Another left the safety
of Dale's leafless raspberry canes
to dart across Prospect Street
for the safety
of the leafless canes
of our red-twig dogwood shrub.
So, too, no one observed
the cluster of deer who
ignored social distancing
guidelines to walk flank to flank
up and down the length
of our hushed street
before I stepped outdoors
into the velvet dark of predawn
to make my own Thursday morning story
with quiet marks.
---
Later the same day I head to my studio for some indoor mark-making using paint, ink, and collage. Four new chaos layers ready to play with.
