VOID OF GOD

Paige McBride

after Elaine de Kooning's painting Bullfight

your painted breathing black feet lost all reflection
in the color of light in the world you never knew

the vacant ivory veil of bloodless snow covered
up your blind spiritless eyes of pallid uninspired
color

the choices to step void of head spoke little
as you watched your hand and brush melt
into the fast strokes of your colorless canvas

void of prayer void of divinity void of God

little dark dove with no soul while living
why did you abandon your gift from the light

at this moment as I stare into the bullfight
of once your mind once painted on a canvas

I think about the empty brush
strokes left by your overshadowed dark
hands and feel nothing.

Paige McBride is an artist, a poet and a librarian who lives with her dog, Sir Simon, in Dunedin, Florida. She received a Bachelor degree in English (CRW) and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. Her poems have appeared in the West Trade Review, Tulane Review, American Chordata, Convergence, Sunset Liminal Press, aaduna, Literary Juice, Burningword Literary Journal, and The Wayfarer among others.