Never thought regarding why

I began purchasing decrepit paintings

from thrift stores.

Possibly feeling sorry

for artist long forgotten

underappreciated

or long dead recipient.

Carefully removing frames

clean layers of grease

cigarette smoke

life’s depressing detritus

smiling as colors brighten

shapes grow sharper.

Touching up damaged parts

adding gamboling wraiths

in fields of lilac

a morose ghost

on an old porch swing

a shy Cthulhu

art deco party

It could be paint fumes

or the absinthe

I start seeing them

already altered

in second-hand stores.

A door has opened

or I am simply painting

by number what was yearning to be recognized.

---

Michelle Hartman is the author of four poetry books, four chapbooks, the most recent a winner of the John and Miriam Morris Memorial Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in Crannog, Galway Review, The Atlanta Review, Penumbra, Poem, Southwestern American Review, Carve and many more.  She is the former editor of Red River Review, as well as the owner ofHungry Buzzard Press.