MORE SCENES OF ISLAND LIFE THAT WANT PAINTING

an aerial view at night from out beyond those stars
of illuminating fires burning within each
darkened house or studio

this never changing horizon:
the ever-deepening blue below
infused from above with a shifting yellow
and some pink, painted solely to express how
you can inhabit a place so fully that it begins to inhabit you
while still refusing to give up anything of itself

that large watermelon
a tip for a lawn-mowing job
the woman who mowed the lawn
her friend, the boat captain,
several other islanders serendipitously
passing by, and the best knife among them
for carving the fruit–before it continues
on her shoulder down the road
half of its original mass

sparks of sun on tops of trees
whose undersides of leaves shiver
in a relief of dark green against the unrelenting
blue, insistent as a pool of water, drawing
beckoning one closer, straining
the back of the neck

if only one could paint the quiet surrounding
the island studio furthest out past Lobster Cove
where any movement of the grasses might be heard
if only one could stand still enough and hold one’s breath
long enough to sympathize with the grasses

Karen Murphy