Learning to Paint

At school today they show us how to paint.

With a brush in hand I slowly trace

and stain the bright white paper,

his image colours my mind.





I start with a sun ­ a bright yellow sun,

an appropriate place to begin.

Of course, every picture needs grass and flowers.

Each petal tainted with a charcoal black.





I do not know how to draw your face or mine.

I use a blood red to draw you

and a dark brown to imitate your frown lines.

You are in the middle ­ big like a giant.





I am in the corner of the painting,

a spec of pale pink.

some might see me,

but you won’t.

And mom can’t,

an ocean blue

highlighting her face.

She’s painted beneath you ­

under the grass.

© Lindsay Foran