MM Panas and JoAnn Moore

“Paradise Lost”
MM Panas
Acrylic, charcoal on canvas
24″x48″
Response

 

Shadows of Decay
By JoAnn Moore
Inspiration piece

 

Like recurring mold on the roof’s eave

that creeps houseward,

 

symptoms of decay are everywhere.

Non-native ivy suffocates

 

the siding, harbors nests of pumpkin

spiders and makes inroads

 

against the Lochness blackberries

which need to expel

 

energy on growing fruit instead

of conquests. The roses

 

I planted two years ago have

never bloomed; the bedroom

 

window is still

broken. And just yesterday

 

I discovered

your lie (the phone number, your lover,

 

your boss)

and the burden of its shadow:

 

you won’t be leaving

with me. I’d like to think

 

it wasn’t a waste of seven years,

that I can put it behind me.

 

But a shadow can’t

just be dug up, torn out,

 

exposed and transplanted in

new soil. No

 

this truth is more

like the bird of paradise I’ve nurtured

 

despite the lack of heat—

tenuous against the weather

 

but sure of its footing.

 

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