Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine #6

Oriental Although he now exists only in the abstract, I can hear Renoir in his studio urging students “Paint what you see!”

For the painter to paint what he sees requires a sort of synthesis, encryption of fact, fantasy and fiction brought to life and given meaning seamlessly in the viewer’s mind.

This is what I see, and what I shall paint: Tumbling gently in ocean waves by the shore, broken bottles are converted to sea glass.

Bocce balls appear incandescent as they slowly roll down the gravel court to click and clack.

Those old analog tapes are being remastered, their digital sound evincing awesome clarity.

I will paint these, and ignore the taunts of Lautrec as he whines “Sacrebleu” in the other room.

One measurement is the same as any other if you ask the pelican with rust dripping from its beak as I flip through pages of a tome that nobody else cares to read.

But that makes no real difference so long as I stir the gravy well enough that I eliminate all of the lumps, and paint what I see, not what I don’t.

So long as I catch the dream train chugging this afternoon for the orient.

Thomas Piekarski Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His poetry and interviews have appeared in Nimrod, Portland Review, Mandala Journal, Cream City Review, Poetry Salzburg, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Boston Poetry Magazine, The Journal, and Poetry Quarterly. He has published a travel book, Best Choices In Northern California, and Time Lines, a book of poems.