The Painter

Amy Ellis

A man teaches a woman to mix paint
pigment and oils and liquids in jars
and glass decanters, ground together
and sloughed on a piece of wood.
Knife scraping board, his hands
on hers and they stir yellows
vermilion and paint the sky red.
There is a wicked storm coming.
There is a child crying through
the door. There is a woman nursing
a baby. There is a girl child breaking
tiles by the hearth. There is a cook
sweeping ash from the coals.
There is a woman being painted.
He puts her body into position
and marks her curves with a brush
that knows the way her body can stroke.
Her fingers are coloured blue.

Amy Ellis has a BA in Creative Writing from Longwood University and a MA in Digital Publishing from Oxford Brookes University. She is a self-published author and works in publishing in London. Follow her online @amesplaza.