“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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